PRESIDENT MEHMET ALI TALAT NOT OPTOMISTIC ABOUT DIRECT TRADE REGULATION DURING PROTUGALS TERM PRESIDENCY.
President of the Republic Mehmet Ali Talat has said that he is not too optimistic about the future of the Direct Trade Regulation.
He said that although Portugal has taken over the EU term Presidency from Germany as from today, the Direct Trade Regulation will once again be prevented by the Greek Cypriot side.
‘The only way to overcome this situation is to use the majority vote system as proposed by the European Commission otherwise the regulation will never come to life’, he added.
Speaking during a visit paid to him today by European Journalists, President Talat evaluated the Cyprus situation.
Noting that the Turkish Cypriot people wanted the island to be united once again, the President of the Republic said ‘political equality is of vital importance for the Turkish Cypriot people. I insisted that political equality be put into the Annan Plan; otherwise the Annan plan would have never been accepted by the Turkish Cypriot people.’Noting that the Greek Cypriot side was against the economic development of Northern Cyprus, President Talat said the Greek Cypriot side doesn’t allow any Turkish Cypriot product that has a North Cyprus sticker on it, this is just unacceptable’.
Explaining that not enough EU countries knew about the Cyprus situation President Talat said from now on it was his aim to explain to new EU member states the Cyprus situation.
‘Last time, when the 259 million Euro aid that was going to be made to the Turkish Cypriot people was being voted on in the European Council, South Cyprus and Greece voted against this, and other EU countries abstained, but I believe those countries didn’t know enough about the Cyprus problem or what the Turkish Cypriot people had lived through,’ he added.
Upon being reminded of the Greek Cypriot sides’ rejection of the Annan Plan, President Talat said ‘the Greek Cypriot side had said they rejected the Annan Plan because the Turkish Army was still going to stay on the island, but this is a lie. If they had accepted the Annan Plan only 650 Turkish soldiers were going to stay on the island and 950 Greek soldiers.
The Greek Cypriot side is continuing to lie to Europe and the world.’
Noting that half the soldiers of the South Cyprus army were made up of Greek soldiers, President Talat asked how come nobody is talking about this situation. Underling the tremendous mistake the European Union had made by accepting the unilateral membership of South Cyprus, President Mehmet Ali Talat concluded by saying, the European Union and the Greek Cypriot side had signed the accession treaty before the referendum of the Annan Plan’.