Cyprus-Forum.com

[insan]

The Berlin Plus agreement was signed between the EU and NATO. One of its provisions stipulated that Malta and Cyprus would be excluded from meetings between NATO and Europe and thus, Turkey was placated. So, why are we facing another crisis just two years later? For me, the crisis actually comes from Europe’s resistance to NATO. Washington tried to discuss with Europe within NATO such issues as terrorism. Europe replied, ‘We can do it, but Cyprus and Malta will participate in these talks with us, because they’re our members. We will either come with them, or not at all.’ Then Turkey said it couldn’t sit at the same table with Cyprus, based on the agreement. It stopped NATO and the process was blocked. What about the agreement? It emerged that there was a difference between the EU’s documents and NATO’s text. NATO’s version said that Cyprus and Malta wouldn’t participate in military meetings and strategic cooperation meetings between NATO and the EU. However, Europe’s said that they only couldn’t participate in military meetings. Of course, you can control the results on a platform on which you exist. If you’re not there, you can’t control them. For this reason, now Europe thinks all its members can participate in strategic talks. However, Turkey opposes this. Meanwhile, the US and Britain are saying to Turkey, ‘It’s in line with your interests to talk about such issues as terrorism in our strategic cooperation with Europe. Don’t resist.’ What will happen if Turkey resists? They say if Turkey resists, relations would develop with Turkey ignored. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his British counterpart Tony Blair discussed the problem last week, but no solution was forthcoming.
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=37764