Tag: Dimitris Christofias

  • UN meeting of divided Cyprus’ rival leaders aims at breakthrough in stalled peace talks

    UN meeting of divided Cyprus’ rival leaders aims at breakthrough in stalled peace talks

    By Menelaos Hadjicostis (CP) – 1 day ago

    NICOSIA, Cyprus — The United Nations’s secretary-general will meet with the rival leaders of divided Cyprus this week to prevent a collapse of reunification talks that could cement the island’s partition and derail Turkey’s EU membership hopes.

    Ban Ki-moon will sound out Greek Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu in New York on Thursday about whether they can negotiate a way out of an impasse threatening to scuttle more than two years of negotiations.

    Ban “wants to hear face-to-face with the leaders their perspective of how the talks are going and what the prospects are,” U.N. envoy Alexander Downer said.

    The island was split into a Turkish Cypriot north and a Greek Cypriot south in 1974 when Turkey invaded after a coup by people who wanted to unify the island nation with Greece. Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004, but only the internationally recognized south enjoys the benefits. A northern breakaway state declared in 1983 is recognized only by Turkey, which maintains 35,000 troops there.

    The U.N. has invested much in these talks, which have been touted as the best chance yet to settle a dispute hampering Turkey’s troubled EU membership bid and crippling EU-NATO co-operation. NATO member Turkey has blocked formal NATO-EU relations, while Cyprus has vetoed Turkey taking part in EU defence activities.

    Turkey began entry talks with the EU in 2005, but negotiations on several policy areas have stalled or been suspended because Turkey refuses to open its ports to trade with Cyprus, as it does not recognize the Greek Cypriot government.

    The New York meeting is intended to spur the leaders into reaching a breakthrough in the reunification process.

    “The only thing that can break the deadlock at this point is an enhanced U.N. role in the talks,” said Ahmet Sozen, a politics professor at Eastern Mediterranean University.

    Christofias has warned against introducing any form of arbitration or deadlines to avoid reprising failed talks in 2004, when Greek Cypriots rejected a U.N. drafted peace plan they felt was weighted against them. Downer said the U.N. isn’t “in the game of forcing anything on anybody that they don’t want.”

    Although some progress has been made on how to share power within an envisioned federation, the talks have bogged down on the issue of what will happen to private property lost during the 1974 war.

    Eighty per cent of property in the Turkish Cypriot north is owned by now displaced Greek Cypriots, and Christofias insists they should be allowed to decide on what happens to it.

    But Eroglu argues the current occupants have an overriding interest and proposes a compensation scheme instead, amid fears that majority Greek Cypriot ownership in the north would undermine Turkish Cypriot administrative control.

    With several failed peace initiatives over 36 years weighing on these negotiations, the international community is running out of patience, Sozen said.

    “A lot of people are feeling that we’re getting toward the end. Either we get a federal Cyprus or something else,” he said, including a Taiwan-style arrangement where the north would trade directly with the world without formal recognition as a separate state.

    One indication of faltering patience was a recent newspaper opinion piece by Britain’s former foreign secretary, Jack Straw, arguing that formal and permanent partition should be considered for the island if these talks fail.

    Christofias has repeatedly said partition is not an option, while Eroglu urged the international community to spell out the consequences of failure.

    via The Canadian Press: UN meeting of divided Cyprus’ rival leaders aims at breakthrough in stalled peace talks.

  • Turkish Cypriots complain about Greek harassment

    Turkish Cypriots complain about Greek harassment

    REETA PAAKKINEN

    The Turkish Cypriot tourism sector is considering starting legal proceedings against Greek Cyprus for what they see as harassment of their business partners abroad. The issue reached the Italian parliament in June, when a local MP called the letters from Greek Cypriot representation an ‘intimidation campaign.’

    For harassment of their overseas business partners, the Turkish Cypriot Tourism and Travel Agencies Association, or KITSAB, and the Turkish Cypriot Hoteliers’ Association, or KITOB, are considering starting legal proceedings against the Greek Cypriot government.

    Presenting several letters from Greek Cypriot embassies in European Union countries and Lebanon to local travel companies marketing holidays in northern Cyprus, KITSAB and KITOB presidents said the Greek Cypriot approach contradicts the U.N.-mediated peace talks.

    In late June, the issue reached the Italian parliament. Marco Perduca of the Radical Party said the letter the Greek Cypriot Embassy in Rome sent to Italian tour operators amounted to an “intimidation campaign” in which the Italian government should support Italian entrepreneurs who bring tourists to northern Cyprus.

    Undermining tourism

    “This time we have had enough of the Greek Cypriot campaign to stop tourism to Turkish Cyprus. Germany, the U.K., Lebanon, Romania, Sweden. … Wherever we go, the Greek Cypriot government follows and calls for our business partners not to cooperate with us,” Özbek Dedekorkut, president of KITSAB, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review.

    A letter from the Greek Cypriot Embassy in Rome to Italian tour operators, seen by the Daily News, conveyed the image that a holiday from Italy to northern Cyprus could lead one into legal trouble by stating, in Italian: “We remind that Tymbou [Ercan] Airport is in the occupied area. In addition, it is operating outside the IATA authority in a way that is outside the law. Arriving in Cyprus through that entry point can lead to fines according to the laws of Republic of Cyprus.”

    Another letter seen by the Daily News was from the Greek Cypriot Embassy in Beirut to a local tour operator in Jounieh, Lebanon, dated June 5. The letter presented the local travel agency the possibility of legal charges in case his company brings tourists to northern Cyprus.

    “It has come to the attention of this Embassy that your travel agency … is currently in the process of establishing a tourist holiday package involving destinations in the Turkish-occupied areas of the Republic of Cyprus. As a consequence we hereby wish to inform you that some of your actions are violating both the legislation of the Republic of Cyprus – a member state of the European Union – and international law in such a way that it may be cause for taking legal action against you and your company. … We also advise you to refrain from launching a sea line with a destination in the occupied areas of the Republic of Cyprus.”

    The letter had an official reference number and was signed by Charge d’Affaires Kyriacos P. Kouros, who could not be reached when the Daily News contacted him about the authenticity of the letter.

    Harming Turkish business

    Although there is no legal basis for stopping people from traveling to northern Cyprus, travel companies abroad become unnecessarily concerned, he said. “Greek Cypriot representatives are trying to scare local businesses abroad, and this harms us. They do not have the right to threaten our business partners like this,” Dedekorkut said.

    “The Greek Cypriot campaign is affecting our marketing, especially in Europe,” said Mehmet Dolmacı, president of KITOB. “Greek Cypriots are making it clear they don’t want to cooperate or share tourism income here. Cyprus is not solely a Greek island – Turkish Cypriots also have the right to live here. Whatever we try to do, they try to stop it. This seems to be their biggest job – not to find a solution but to try to pressure us to leave Cyprus for better income elsewhere.”

    Contradictory

    Maintaining isolation is contradictory to peace talks, according to Maurizio Turco, a member of the Italian Parliament and a colleague of Marco Perduca in the Italian Radical Party. Turco said attempts to hamper the growth of tourism in northern Cyprus are in dire contrast with the ongoing talks. “The Greek Cypriot side is talking with Turkish Cypriots about a comprehensive settlement, yet at the same time their representations are trying to stop tourism to northern Cyprus. This is just not right,” Turco told the Daily News in late July in Kyrenia.

    “We should bring the issue to the world’s attention. [Turkish Cypriot president] Mehmet Ali Talat should also point this out to [Greek Cypriot president] Dimitris Christofias and make it clear this is not right,” Turco added.

    According to Turco, the letters the Greek Cypriot Embassy in Rome sent have been noted in the Italian parliament. “This issue should really be discussed on the EU level,” he said. “Member states should come together to discuss the isolation of northern Cyprus. But because of the veto Greek Cyprus has, this is difficult.”

    It was a mistake to accept Greek Cyprus in the EU after it turned down the Kofi Annan Peace proposal, said Turco, who earlier served in the European Parliament. “There should have been first a peace deal, and only then entry for the whole island into the EU.”

    Hürriyet