Cyprus-Forum.com

[bill cobbett]

From... http://www.europarl.europa.eu/en/pressr ... -to-the-EU

Turkey again told to start withdrawing its Illegal Army of Occupation and to open ports and airspace...

..... "Turkey's continuing refusal to implement the "Additional Protocol", signed five years ago, which requires the country to open its airports and harbours to the Republic of Cyprus, continues to affect the negotiating process. MEPs call on the Turkish government to "facilitate a suitable climate for negotiations by immediately starting to withdraw its forces from Cyprus", and to open access to military zones and archives to the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus. The Turkish-Cypriot authorities must also stop new settlements of Turkish citizens on the island, add MEPs".....

(published 10.2.11)

#cyprus #kypros #kibris

[Jerry]

From... http://www.europarl.europa.eu/en/pressr ... -to-the-EU

Turkey again told to start withdrawing its Illegal Army of Occupation and to open ports and airspace...

..... "Turkey's continuing refusal to implement the "Additional Protocol", signed five years ago, which requires the country to open its airports and harbours to the Republic of Cyprus, continues to affect the negotiating process. MEPs call on the Turkish government to "facilitate a suitable climate for negotiations by immediately starting to withdraw its forces from Cyprus", and to open access to military zones and archives to the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus. The Turkish-Cypriot authorities must also stop new settlements of Turkish citizens on the island, add MEPs".....

(published 10.2.11)

#cyprus #kypros #kibris

Pity they didn't add "or else we will abort the Customs Union"

[Kikapu]

From... http://www.europarl.europa.eu/en/pressr ... -to-the-EU

Turkey again told to start withdrawing its Illegal Army of Occupation and to open ports and airspace...

..... "Turkey's continuing refusal to implement the "Additional Protocol", signed five years ago, which requires the country to open its airports and harbours to the Republic of Cyprus, continues to affect the negotiating process. MEPs call on the Turkish government to "facilitate a suitable climate for negotiations by immediately starting to withdraw its forces from Cyprus", and to open access to military zones and archives to the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus. The Turkish-Cypriot authorities must also stop new settlements of Turkish citizens on the island, add MEPs".....

(published 10.2.11)

#cyprus #kypros #kibris

Haven't you heard, Billy.?

"I am not saying Turkey is perfect ... she has to solve very important issues," Bagis said. But "compared to the past, Turkey is at a much better point."

"We have started to taste, to smell full accession," he said. "The fact that the European Commission found that Turkey achieved progress in all chapters signals better days."

http://www.cyprus-mail.com/cyprus/eu-ch ... s/20101110

[ZoC]

full accession - now there's a smell.

[bill cobbett]

... and even the normally very turkophile Stephan Fule is getting impatient.... and tells Turkey there is No Plan B....

....."The European Union’s Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele warned Turkey on Friday that it would not be able to join the EU if it does not resolve its dispute with Cyprus.

“No, we don’t have a Plan B,” he said on a visit to Istanbul."......

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_ar ... 011_377968

[antifon]

full accession - now there's a smell.

I think Shortie confused it with Cypriot gas!

http://antifon.blogspot.com
.

[Hermes]

... and even the normally very turkophile Stephan Fule is getting impatient.... and tells Turkey there is No Plan B....

One more Turkophile whose patience with Turkey has run out (note the emphasis on Turkey's responsibility to "bring a solution"):

Andrew Duff, a British member of the European Parliament, went further and said accession will no longer be a topic to discuss for the European Parliament this time next year if there is no “dramatic change” on Cyprus this year. If Turkey does not bring a solution, he said, “there is no chance of a settlement in this generation and there is no chance that Turkey can continue the formal accession process.”

“The reason why I am so outspoken on this is that I’m getting tired of pretending that everything is fine, while we all know privately that it is not,” said Duff, who has been a strong supporter of Turkish accession.

http://www.todayszaman.com/news-235372- ... yprus.html

[grokked]

I usualy find most Cyprus-related articles and commentaries at Hurriyet Daily News to be 'doctrinaire' and irritating, so I usually prefer to read the English content at Zaman, but in the instance of the following article, I take my hats off to Cengiz Aktar for both his choice of headline, and the views expressed:

(This item is definitely worth pasting-in in full here, just in case it happens to 'disappear' at a later date at the TDN website archives, as has sometimes happened in the past with some controversial items that have subsequently become unavailable)

------------

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php? ... 2011-02-11

OPINION
• CENGİZ AKTAR

Tahrir Square? Don’t overlook İnönü Square in Nicosia

Friday, February 11, 2011

CENGİZ AKTAR

Cyprus is back on Turkey’s agenda again; this time, however, in a quite different way. The banner of the meeting held on Jan. 28 which tens of thousands of Turco-Cypriots attended was “Societal Existence”… What could that mean? It means “We don’t want to be the 82nd province of Turkey, we want to exist as Cypriots otherwise we won’t exist anymore!” This is the first protest held in Cyprus since 1974 that gathered so many people under such a banner. Starting with the government, everyone should pay attention to this development as the second mass demonstration is announced for Wednesday, March 2.

Turco-Cypriots are complaining about becoming increasingly foreigners in their own land. This is not a kind of feeling that can be simply read as ingratitude toward Turkey, nor can it be answered by arrogance of a colonialist sort. Because if no precautionary measures are taken, the disturbance might turn into hot encounters between islanders and mainlanders.

Dead end

In Turkey, expertise on Cyprus falls under the Foreign Ministry’s monopoly and therefore it is shaped by the state interest and “vision.” Since the declaration of independence of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in 1983, the expertise is translated into practice. The tutelage of Turkish state institutions over northern Cyprus is perhaps unprecedented even in Turkey.

This state of affairs has dragged the government into a dead end. Years ago, on Jan. 24, 2004, Prime Minister Erdoğan broke up the 30-year-old state practice and took a very courageous step concerning the Cyprus question. This step, however, was too late coming after the rejection of the first Annan Plan by Turkey in 2003, opening the way for the Republic of Cyprus to become an EU member state without being reunited with the north. As a consequence Greco-Cypriots rejected the Annan Plan in the 2004 referendum whereby the Erdoğan initiative became totally idle. As of then, some EU member states that are against Turkey’s membership have become voluntary allies of the Republic of Cyprus. Overall the EU watched helplessly as the Republic of Cyprus exploiting membership rights against Turkey and northern Cyprus in all circumstances. Ankara has chosen to deal with such a dilemma by shying away from the EU accession talks and Cyprus reunification talks. In terms of northern Cyprus, it was just such a policy that laid the groundwork for today’s social explosion.

Adding fuel to the flame

Reactions of the prime minister and top officials of the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, to the Jan. 28 protest were not logical. Firstly, the prime minister refrained from giving the same blessing he gave to Egyptians to Turco-Cypriots. Quite to the contrary, his insulting and threatening style of communication has the potential to make things worse. Today even the most devoted AKP supporters on the island are angry and feel offended.

Secondly, the military, strategic and nationalistic emphasis of the prime minister makes everything more problematic. When he disdains the Cyprus flag shown at the meeting, he forgets that the same flag is engraved in Republic of Cyprus passports that are held by almost every Turco-Cypriot. Besides it was designed by a Turco-Cypriot at the time!

There is not a single expert emphasizing the so-called strategic significance of the island for Turkey.

The Greek dominion over the Republic of Cyprus was probably heard for the first time ever by Greece and the rest of the world.

The martyrdom rhetoric is far from useful for settling the burning issues of northern Cyprus today.

Thirdly is the lack of information and more importantly misinterpretation of the underlying economic problem. For days, data has been published about the amount of credit, subsidies and donations Turkey gives to northern Cyprus, and on defense expenditures. First of all, no matter how high the credit or donations are, Turkey is paying the price for the isolation of northern Cyprus. And as long as the status quo continues, it will continue to do so. In the other hand, money given to northern Cyprus is also being spent for Turks who were moved from Anatolia to northern Cyprus and whose population has now overtaken the Turco-Cypriots. In other words, Turkey is taking care of Turks who were sent by the mainland to Cyprus! In this sense, let me remind you that no census has been carried out in northern Cyprus for decades, for obvious reasons.

It is important to know that Turkey is approaching the end of the road in northern Cyprus. The removal of Turkish Ambassador Kaya Türkmen last Thursday and his replacement by a non-diplomat in charge of the austerity plan marks a turning point and a milestone on the road to de jure annexation. It shows the Turkish intent to not even pretend to consider northern Cyprus as an independent country and calls a spade a spade, or a protectorate a protectorate.

-------------

[Hermes]

Reactions of the prime minister and top officials of the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, to the Jan. 28 protest were not logical. Firstly, the prime minister refrained from giving the same blessing he gave to Egyptians to Turco-Cypriots. Quite to the contrary, his insulting and threatening style of communication has the potential to make things worse. Today even the most devoted AKP supporters on the island are angry and feel offended.

Secondly, the military, strategic and nationalistic emphasis of the prime minister makes everything more problematic. When he disdains the Cyprus flag shown at the meeting, he forgets that the same flag is engraved in Republic of Cyprus passports that are held by almost every Turco-Cypriot. Besides it was designed by a Turco-Cypriot at the time!

There is not a single expert emphasizing the so-called strategic significance of the island for Turkey.

The Greek dominion over the Republic of Cyprus was probably heard for the first time ever by Greece and the rest of the world.

The martyrdom rhetoric is far from useful for settling the burning issues of northern Cyprus today.

Thirdly is the lack of information and more importantly misinterpretation of the underlying economic problem.

Yes a truly bizarre series of strategic errors by the supposedly brilliant strategist Erdogan. For which we are truly grateful. Who'd have thought Turkey would take a gun, point it at its feet and keep on shooting until it had blown its legs off?

[wyoming cowboy]

Ive been paying attention to the results of the revolution in Egypt, and the one aspect that stands out is that the people no matter their political spectrum, fundementalist, military, democratic secularist,the muslim brotherhood, all of them came together for this cause.......to oust Mubarak the dictator.....

These events seem now to have been inevitable, turning to cyprus, what better way to bring the gc and tc together for a just cause to liberate their island from the oppressor which both seem to view turkey, inevitably soon both the ethnic groups will have to join forces to accomplish this task, Turkey inevitably leaves the island because of this ......the revolution is complete both ethnic groups who fought and distrusted one another for so many years, completed a great task together.....A phenomenon is occuring in Egypt today, the first day of post Mubarak Egypt...the citizens of Cairo, no matter f they are christian or Muslim brotherhood are cleaning up their city together after 18 days of revolution, women sweeping the streets while men pick up the rocks and paper and hauling it away....the bound among the Egyptians is growing every day, After turkey leaves cyprus and the tc ang gc are left alone, both ethnic groups will realize that the only way forward is through trust and consiliation, because they dont have any other choice.....