Avci visit was party affair’
ITALY HAS given assurances to Cyprus that it has nothing to do with a visit to Rome by Turkish Cypriot ‘Foreign Minister’ Turgay Avci, Nicosia said yesterday
The Permanent Secretary of the Foreign Ministry, Alexandros Zenon, said the government had made representations to Rome about Avci’s visit to Italy where he is said to have handed Turkish Cypriot passports to two Italian politicians.
[size=18]“The Italian foreign ministry has made it clear that a meeting Avci had with the Italian Minister for European Policy and International Trade had nothing to do with her capacity as government minister,” Zenon told reporters yesterday.[/size]
He said the meeting was an encounter between the leaders of two political parties only and that the Italian Minister, Emma Bonino, was acting in her personal and party capacity. She was not acting as a representative of the Italian government, Zenon said.[/size]
[size=18]He also said the Italian government had turned down a request from Avci for a meeting with the minister responsible for tertiary education and that contrary to press reports Avci did not address the union of foreign correspondents in Rome.
Zenon said similar visits and meetings between Turkish Cypriot and foreign political party members had taken place in the past without any implication of recognition of the breakaway state in the north.
Avci was due to speak later yesterday in a room at the premises of the Italian Parliament.
Zenon said the Italian parliament allocated different rooms to the political parties and that the Turkish Cypriot politician would be speaking there, not addressing the Italian parliament.
“All such gatherings are purely party encounters and there has never been any issue of convening such meetings at official buildings,” Zenon said.
He added that the passport Avci would be handing over had no legal validity.
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2007
Avci could have just FedEx those "TRNC" Passports rather than hand deliver them in some "room" that had no significance.
It most certainly would have been cheaper.
Then again, Rome is rather nice this time of the year.
Any excuse for a free trip, I guess.
And I get accused of pointing out "amateurish politicking" by the "TRNC", as if they were in the "minor leagues".
Go figure.!!