Cyprus-Forum.com

[doesntmatter]

The Associated PressPublished: January 15, 2009

Cyprus FA chief urges Turkish Cypriots to ink deal

NICOSIA, Cyprus: The Cyprus Turkish Football Association, the governing body of the sport in the northern part of the divided island, could end its decades-old exclusion from the international game in a deal brokered by FIFA and UEFA if it agrees to put itself under the direction of the Cyprus Football Association.

Only the Greek Cypriot-run CFA is recognized by FIFA and UEFA. The breakaway Turkish Cypriot state is recognized only by Turkey, and FIFA rules don't allow for two associations to operate in one country.

"We offer them (Turkish Cypriots) a way out of this dead end," CFA president Costas Koutsokoumnis said Thursday. "There is no way out for Turkish Cypriot football except if they sign this agreement."

The two sides are expected to meet in Zurich, Switzerland, on Feb. 2 to agree on the deal, which would force the CTFA to apply for CFA membership, but would allow the body to hold international friendlies and run its own championship.

CTFA officials have resisted the deal because they feel it would render them subordinate to Greek Cypriot authority and set a bad example in ongoing talks to reunify the divided island.

Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat said Wednesday that there "was no way possible" for the deal to be accepted because it would dilute Turkish Cypriot control over their own institutions.

Cyprus was split along ethnic lines in 1974 when Turkey invaded in response to a coup by Athens-backed supporters of uniting the island with Greece. A breakaway Turkish Cypriot state was set up almost a decade later.

Talat and Greek Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias restarted moribund peace talks last September, but have yet to make any real progress.

Koutsokoumnis said the football deal would be a temporary arrangement until a formal reunification agreement is reached.

The CTFA would also hold a seat on the CFA board and have a say on the arbitration panel. It would also be allowed to keep its own player registry, but the CFA would retain formal control of a central registry of all players.

"I call on the Turkish Cypriots, if they're thinking about the future of their children and seek the hope that football can provide, to come to Zurich on Feb. 2 without passion or fear to initial (the deal)," Koutsokoumnis said.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/01/ ... otball.php

That remains to be seen. There is always a way out.

[Kikapu]

The Associated PressPublished: January 16, 2009

Cyprus' rival leaders finish power-sharing talks


NICOSIA, Cyprus: Cyprus' rival Greek and Turkish community leaders ended their first round of reunification talks Friday with both sides agreeing to keep negotiating despite disagreements.

President Dimitris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat ended the chapter on power-sharing in a future federation during a two-hour meeting at a U.N. compound inside the buffer zone separating the two communities. No results were announced, but both leaders agreed to keep talking.

"What I'm telling you is that things are not black," said Christofias, a Greek Cypriot.

Cyprus was ethnically split in 1974 when Turkey invaded in response to a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Christofias and Talat restarted peace talks in September after a four-year deadlock.

Turkish Cypriots seek a more devolved union and heightened representation in federal institutions to avoid domination from the majority Greek Cypriots. Greek Cypriots want a strong federal government to prevent any agreement from unraveling into permanent partition.

U.N. envoy Alexander Downer said despite continued difficulties, it would not be helpful to impose a timeline on the talks, which started four months ago and are expected to continue all year.

The leaders will open the even more complex chapter of property on Jan. 28, Downer said.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/01/ ... -Talks.php

[Kikapu]

ReutersPublished: January 18, 2009
By Ibon Villelabeitia

Turkey's PM travels to Brussels to bolster EU bid

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan flies to Brussels on Sunday for a visit aimed at boosting the Muslim country's troubled bid for European Union accession.

Erdogan's trip, his first to Brussels in four years, comes as Ankara faces EU pressure to speed up reforms in a decisive year, and amid questions over its commitment.

EU officials say privately that Turkey, which began accession talks in 2005, may face a deadlock if progress is not made this year, while analysts warn that trust is ebbing away and that the two sides must rebuild momentum.

"2009 is a decisive year. The political commitment has to be very clear this year," said Hugh Pope, an analyst from the International Crisis Group.

DOUBLE STANDARDS

Turks accuse Europeans of double standards and polls show support for the EU is dwindling as nationalism rises.

EU states, likewise, are divided about accepting Turkey.

Powerful states such as France and Germany are not keen to see Turkey join the bloc, questioning the European credentials of the poor, Muslim country of 70 million people.

Erdogan will be accompanied during his three-day visit by Egemen Bagis, Turkey's first full-time EU negotiator, whose appointment last week was seen as a sign that Ankara might be willing to push long-delayed reforms.

But Erdogan, who has been criticised for his lack of presence on the European scene, will also face an increasingly sceptical Europe over Ankara's commitment when he meets European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and other EU leaders.

The EU wants Ankara to reform its constitution, improve free speech, grant more rights to minorities and curb the power of the army. Turkey has pledged many times that it is determined to complete talks, but Brussels wants deeds, not words.

Recent moves such as launching a Kurdish language channel on state television have rekindled hopes of a new reformist spirit in Ankara, but painful and unpopular reforms are long overdue.

Rising tension between the ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party and the secularist establishment, and municipal elections in March are likely to dominate the domestic agenda, observers say.

Turkey has opened talks on 10 out of the 35 so-called negotiation chapters, of which it has provisionally completed negotiations on just one.

The bloc has frozen eight chapters in Turkey's accession talks because of Ankara's refusal to open its ports and airports to Greek Cypriots. The European Commission has set a mid-December deadline for Ankara to open its ports to Cyprus.

http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/200 ... KEY-EU.php

"2009 is a decisive year. The political commitment has to be very clear this year," said Hugh Pope, an analyst from the International Crisis Group."

"The bloc has frozen eight chapters in Turkey's accession talks because of Ankara's refusal to open its ports and airports to Greek Cypriots. The European Commission has set a mid-December deadline for Ankara to open its ports to Cyprus."

[Kikapu]

Published: January 18 2009
By Delphine Strauss in Ankara


Turkish PM signals fresh drive for EU


Turkey’s prime minister arrived in Brussels on Sunday aiming to revive the country’s stalled bid for European Union membership, which is under threat from tensions over Cyprus, political stasis within Turkey and waning EU enthusiasm for enlargement.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan is making his first visit to EU headquarters since December 2004, when he secured the opening of accession talks after tense negotiations. Almost immediately, a series of political crises distracted Turkey from the reforms needed for accession, EU opinion became more overtly hostile, and a sense of mutual disillusion set in.

The coming year will be critical. In December, a report by the International Crisis Group urged both sides to “break out of this downward spiral before one or the other breaks off the negotiations, which could then well prove impossible to start again”.

The biggest uncertainty lies in the outcome of peace talks between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. A settlement would remove one of the biggest hurdles to Turkish accession. But if talks fail and Turkey does not open ports to Greek Cypriot traffic by this year’s deadline, it could face calls to suspend membership talks entirely.

Negotiations could in any case grind to a halt on technical grounds. Unless Turkey accelerates reforms and the EU agrees to open talks on areas of negotiation blocked by Cyprus or other countries, there will soon be no more chapters to open.

Mr Erdogan appears to be fighting back, this month appointing Egemen Bagis – a close aide – as EU chief negotiator. The role was previously held by Ali Babacan, the foreign minister, despite his evident lack of time among other commitments.

The recent launch of Kurdish-language broadcasting on state television, efforts to mend relations with the minority Alevi religious community, and parliament’s adoption of a long-delayed national reform programme also suggest the government wants to inject new life into EU-sponsored reforms.

But the key question is whether Mr Erdogan’s commitment to EU accession will extend to tackling the most contentious issues, or whether he simply aims to do enough to avoid a breach.

The burst of reform that won Turkey credibility and a start to membership negotiations took place when Abdullah Gul, now in the largely ceremonial post of president, was driving the process.

Sinan Ulgen, head of a think-tank in Istanbul, said EU leaders’ meetings with Mr Erdogan would try to “instill in him a sense of urgency” but added that accession would not be “part of his grand strategy” unless he trusted the EU to deliver on its promise of eventual membership.

Other commentators are more optimistic. The columnist Mehmet Ali Birand wrote that Mr Bagis’s appointment could signal a fresh push for the EU. But because the new negotiator’s main qualification was his proximity to Mr Erdogan, he added, it depended “whether or not the prime minister has really made a decision”.

If he is determined, Mr Erdogan still has to battle against party political tensions that make it difficult to pass even the least controversial legislation, and scepticism over whether the EU will repay Turkish efforts with membership on reasonable terms.

However, many Turks still feel a strong attraction to the EU and a conviction that membership is the best way to achieve internal change. “We need to be pushed,” said Elif Bilgi Zapparoli, head of EFG Securities in Istanbul.

“I want Turkey to be an EU member for social issues – democracy, and democratic values,” said Sani Sener, chief executive of the airport operator TAV. “In the end Turkey has to be part of Europe.”

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/336b3b8c-e57f ... fd2ac.html

"The biggest uncertainty lies in the outcome of peace talks between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. A settlement would remove one of the biggest hurdles to Turkish accession. But if talks fail and Turkey does not open ports to Greek Cypriot traffic by this year’s deadline, it could face calls to suspend membership talks entirely."

"However, many Turks still feel a strong attraction to the EU and a conviction that membership is the best way to achieve internal change. “We need to be pushed,” said Elif Bilgi Zapparoli, head of EFG Securities in Istanbul."

“I want Turkey to be an EU member for social issues – democracy, and democratic values,” said Sani Sener, chief executive of the airport operator TAV. “In the end Turkey has to be part of Europe.”

[DT.]

Article in todays Times

http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/l ... 767404.ece


Legal problems with Northern Cyprus property
Following a ruling by the European court, British owners face huge damages
Kasia Maciejowska

Britons who bought holiday homes in Northern Cyprus may be forced to pay thousands of pounds in damages to the original Greek Cypriot owners of the land, following a ruling by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. The judgment, expected later this year, will conclude a case that began in 2005, when a Cypriot court ordered a British couple, Linda and David Orams, to demolish their villa to pay compensation to Meledis Apostolides — the Greek Cypriot legal owner of the land. Like many other Britons, the Orams bought the land from Turkish Cypriots who took ownership illegally following the Turkish invasion of 1974, when an estimated 170,000 Greek Cypriots fled their homes. The case was referred to the EU court after the Orams opposed the ruling. The Advocate General, whose opinion is usually followed, has backed the Greek Cypriots. If this opinion is upheld, damages to the dispossessed population could be enforced against any assets owned elsewhere in the EU by non-Greek property owners.

[miltiades]

I can smell my old mate , an English man that bought in Northern Cyprus against my advice , from 6 miles away !!! Last time I saw him he was hard at it trying to sell . Serves him and the likes of him right.
No brains just a few quid in their pocket and a hunger for something off the back of a lorry.

[Nikitas]

A question of clarification please. Has the court decided and we are waiting for a written and official version of the judgement or is this speculation?

[DT.]

always pisses me off when foreigners knew exactly what the annan plan was about and yet 26% of the lame brained cypriots are still banging on about it, instead of feeling the slightest bit embarassed about their failed attempt at partition.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opi ... 83310.html

BOOK OF THE DAY : Getting it Wrong: Fragments from a Cyprus Diary 1964 By Martin Packard, AuthorHouse UK 416pp, $19.98

IN THIS important book, Martin Packard warns that UN and other peacekeeping missions lay down “green lines” to separate antagonists without making efforts to reconcile communities and shows how intercommunal peacemaking from the ground up can spare a country division and partition.

Packard, a Greek-speaking British naval officer seconded to Cyprus during the 1964 crisis, has produced an instructive case study on encouraging deeply alienated communities to reach accommodation and live together rather than seek separation through bloodshed and communal cleansing.

Packard arrived on the island on January 5th, 1964, 10 days after fighting had erupted between Greek and Turkish Cypriots disputing the island’s polity. Greek Cypriots, 82 per cent of the population, demanded amendments to the powersharing constitution to prevent the 18 per cent Turkish Cypriots from using their veto to block the ordinary processes of governance. Turkish Cypriots refused to cede their power while Turkey, their protector, promoted partition and threatened intervention.

Packard recruited regular Greek and Turkish army officers into tripartite teams which went from village to village – 80 per cent of the population were village dwellers – settling disputes, freeing hostages, and encouraging villagers to resolve their own problems. His teams achieved reconciliation in many villages, although in some Turkish Cypriots opted for resettlement in Turkish-army protected enclaves due to intimidation by communal militiamen backed by Athens and Ankara. However, Packard believed the “mother countries” were, at that time, seeking a way out of the crisis and might have found a formula which would have preserved the integrity of the 1960 Cyprus republic. But that was not to be. After Packard described his reconciliation efforts to US envoy George Ball, he replied, ominously: “Very impressive, but you’ve got it all wrong, son. Hasn’t anyone told you that our objective here is partition, not reintegration.”

The Greeks and Turks were being prodded into partition by Cold War allies Britain and the US. They feared that the eastern flank of the Nato alliance could be wrecked by Graeco-Turkish warfare or weakened by an independent Cyprus under its non-aligned president Makarios.

Ball’s remark was not taken seriously until, after several more months of effecting successful reconciliations, peacemaker Packard was banned from Cyprus by his masters in London.

The very same forces were at play in 1974 when Greece mounted a coup against Makarios and Turkey occupied the north of the island, and in 2004 when the UN, guided by the US and UK, attempted to secure approval for a bi-communal, bi-zonal federation which preserved division and legitimised the de facto partition imposed by Turkey.

Greek Cypriots, led by their president, Tassos Papadopoulos, rejected the plan in a referendum while Turkish Cypriots and Turkey accepted it. It is ironic that in 2004 Papadopoulos was castigated by the West as an obstacle to reunification when in 1964 he fully backed Packard’s efforts to promote intercommunal reconciliation and unity.

At both times partition was the name of the game. While Packard admits his diary format has the disadvantage of being repetitive, the narrative picks up and grips as small incidents threaten to balloon into major clashes.Packard rejects demonisation of the Greek Cypriots as well as favouritism for the “underdog” Turkish Cypriots, attitudes which still prevail and also hinder resolution of the Cyprus problem.

Unfortunately, this book is 45 years too late.

Michael Jansen, a Middle East analyst for The Irish

[insan]

Partition of Cyprs has always been an option for the concerned parties to resolve the conflict between Greeks and Turks besides TCs and GCs. It seems Packard was not aware of the official talks on a partition Plan called "Acheson Plan".

In the spring of 1964, the "Acheson Plan", provided another opportunity to resolve the long-standing dispute. Cyprus would be ceded to Greece. In return, the Greek island of Kastellorizon, just 3 miles off the southern coast of Turkey would be transferred to Turkey. Turkey would also have a sovereign base area on Cyprus, covering most of the Karpaz. This would be owned by Turkey in perpetuity, much as the British SBAs are in the south of the island. Turkish Cypriots, would also be allowed to have several parts of the island, totally administered by themselves.
Although this plan was supported by Greece and Turkey, Makarios vetoed it, as he felt this gave too much to Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots.
An amended plan leased a much smaller area of the Karpaz to Turkey for 50 years only. In addition, there would be no self-administered areas for the Turkish Cypriots. This plan was rejected by Turkey, and so, once again, the chance of a settlement was lost.

http://www.whatson-northcyprus.com/hist ... ndence.htm

[Kikapu]

Partition of Cyprs has always been an option for the concerned parties to resolve the conflict between Greeks and Turks besides TCs and GCs. It seems Packard was not aware of the official talks on a partition Plan called "Acheson Plan".

In the spring of 1964, the "Acheson Plan", provided another opportunity to resolve the long-standing dispute. Cyprus would be ceded to Greece. In return, the Greek island of Kastellorizon, just 3 miles off the southern coast of Turkey would be transferred to Turkey. Turkey would also have a sovereign base area on Cyprus, covering most of the Karpaz. This would be owned by Turkey in perpetuity, much as the British SBAs are in the south of the island. Turkish Cypriots, would also be allowed to have several parts of the island, totally administered by themselves.
Although this plan was supported by Greece and Turkey, Makarios vetoed it, as he felt this gave too much to Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots.
An amended plan leased a much smaller area of the Karpaz to Turkey for 50 years only. In addition, there would be no self-administered areas for the Turkish Cypriots. This plan was rejected by Turkey, and so, once again, the chance of a settlement was lost.

http://www.whatson-northcyprus.com/hist ... ndence.htm

So what you are saying is, as others have said it many times before, that Turkey came in 1974 to take part of Cyprus that she always wanted and not because the TC's were being "exterminated" by the GC's. The fact that the "Green Line" was drawn very precisely in 2-3 days and was not the work of an "on the spur of the moment invasion", tends to give credence to your above link.!

Thanks for the clarification, Insan.!

You have come through once again.!