Protesters march on EU institutions against 'isolation' of northern Cyprus...............By Martin Banks - 27th June 2012
Hundreds of Turkish Cypriots took to the streets in Brussels on Wednesday to protest at their "exclusion" from the international community.The 500 protestors were dressed in white like ghosts, to demonstrate against the discrimination they face as "invisible citizens" of the EU.
The protest is timed to coincide with the start of the Cyprus presidency of the EU which commences on 1 July. It will take over the rotating presidency from Denmark.
A spokesman for the protestors said that the northern part of the country is much less affluent than the south, adding, "Our economy has remained stagnant and unemployment is high. We are effectively isolated."
The EU admitted what was - and still remains - a divided island in 2004, with EU membership suspended for northern Cyprus.
Turkish Cypriots living in the north say this had denied a some 200,000-strong community there the EU rights and citizenship privileges that Greek Cypriots in the south of the island enjoy.
Representatives from a wide range of NGOs, unions and universities in northern Cyprus assembled outside parliament on Wednesday before marching across the EU quarter to protest at their treatment by the EU.
The Turkish Cypriots say they are angry that eight years after the island's admission into the EU, they are still unable to have a voice at parliament or to benefit from the EU's basic freedoms and commercial, educational, social and cultural opportunities.
The Republic of Cyprus was formed in 1960 as a federal partnership state by Greek and Turkish Cypriots.
The power-sharing state collapsed in December 1963. International efforts to end the decades-old conflict so that a united Cyprus entered the EU as a single nation failed in 2004.
In a referendum on 24 April, 65 per cent of Turkish Cypriots said 'yes' to the United Nations backed Annan Plan, while 76 per cent of Greek Cypriots voted against the plan they had helped draw up.
Turkish Cypriots claim that since entering the EU on 1 May 2004, south Cyprus has used its veto powers to "block promises" made by the European council and others "to put an end to the isolation of Turkish Cypriots".
Turkey has warned that it may not cooperate with the incoming Cyprus presidency unless the situation is resolved.
http://www.theparliament.com/latest-new ... rn-cyprus/
