Cyprus-Forum.com

[Kifeas]

Turkey must respect its EU commitments


26/09/2006

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin warned Turkey on Monday that it would face consequences if it failed to fully open its ports and airports to Cypriot vessels and aircraft.

Speaking during a joint press conference with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, de Villepin said it “is very important that Turkey understand it must respect its commitments, respect them in spirit and in letter, otherwise the

Europeans will be obliged to draw their conclusions”.

Turkey, an EU candidate country, refuses to implement a Protocol extending the Ankara Agreement (Customs Union) to the ten new EU member states, which among others provides for the opening of Turkish ports and airports to Cypriot ships and airplanes.

It seems that in Turkey there is a complete lack of political culture, resulting in the making of its entire political life to revolve around populist methods and rhetoric, and every time elections approach (actually years before them,) the country is paralyzed and is unable to take any decision on any critical matter. The political life in this country is so corrupted, that all it matters to the various power centers and ideological platforms is how to retain or regain power in their hands. As a result, they engage in purely populist practices and rhetoric -nationalism being a prime one such premise, for the sole purpose of surviving politically and regardless of how detrimental and costly their actions and rhetoric may end up becoming for the long-term interests of the country. The Turkish public is kept always in a stage of complete confusion, unable to judge what is right or wrong, good or bad, and unable to properly evaluate who tells them the truth and who doesn’t. It seems that this is how the Army wants the political life of the country to be rolling, obviously because this makes their jobs easier, and their role better consolidated.

Turkey is a country in a stage of permanent socio-political paralytic shock, and it seems that only electroshock can wake her up and save her!

The most likely scenario is for the EU member states to proceed to the freezing of Turkey’s accession process for at least 1 year, so that elections in Turkey will take place, and a new government is formed, and then, provided it has fulfilled its pending commitments and obligations regarding internal reforms and the implementation of the Ankara agreement in the case of Cyprus, to reopen the process by the beginning of 2008.

[Viewpoint]

Where will that leave the GC run south? any closer to a solution? any leverage via EU? or will it just create a pissed off Turkey who according your own words is in paralytic shock that it could mean shes turns away from her EU dream towards newer horizons notably the east and thus abandoning any need or desire to solve the Cyprus problem.

So Kifeas your piece of land and heritage in sunny Lapta may one day become part of sunny Turkey and then where will you be? suing Turkey no doubt.

Imho a Turkey disinterested in the EU is not in your best interests, wasn't it the reason you joined the EU in the first place obviously it wasn't for economic stability but a catalyst to lever Turkey into a position where you could extract what you want. Turkey taking a walk is not what i would call getting what you want, far from it you run the chance of losing any chance you had of ever reuniting this island. Who knows in 20 years with a disinterested Turkey you may be begging for the UN to implement the Annan plan by which time it will be too late.

[Kartal_Aetos]

tut tut...that's a very hostile post mr piratis

1. Hostile are those that declared a pseudo state on land they took by force from our country, not my post.

well, believe it or not...TRNC does exist...its just that EU does not recognise it

2. It is not just EU. No country recognizes it, apart from the ones who run it.

Turkey does not recognise RoC...does this mean that RoC doesn't exist?

3. It means it doesn't exist for Turkey, in the same way that "trnc" doesn't exist for the rest of the world.

then how can they open their ports to somewhere which doesn't exist?

4. Of course the ports exist. The problem is that it is not "their" ports. Those are RoCs ports that RoC is currently not able to operate due to the Turkish occupation.

The reason why we can not trade through the 'free' ports is because the revenue generated goes to the RoC government and not ours therefore it does not go into our economic system...therefore we do not reap the benefits of trading through these ports...the citizens living in RoC do...it's not like RoC are gonna turn around and be like hey, your hard working people generated this money...take it, build some schools for the TC youth, build some hospitals for the TC's that are ill, build some infrastructure so that the TC's can prosper...and fair enough, no1 expects them to...but then we must look for a way for this revenue to go into our economy so that we may see the benefits of foreign trade...

5. The TCs can take many of the benefits of RoC like free health care, without even paying taxes at RoC.

TCs are RoC citizens, and just like GCs we all suffer from the consequences of the illegal Turkish occupation.
For those consequences you should blame Turkey who is the one acting illegally in Cyprus, and not RoC which is naturally trying to protect its sovereignty.

Do not forget that "trnc" does NOT equal TCs. "trnc" is a Turkish (not TC) run illegal state which is made up by more Turks from Turkey than TCs (if you include the 40.000 occupation force + settlers). Also the land that "trnc" claims that exist on, is the homeland of far more GCs than TCs.
So the northern part of our country is (at least) as much GC land as it is TC land (like the rest of Cyprus). So we obviously also want that part of our country to be developed and prosper. But this should be done to serve the people of those lands (GCs and TCs), not to finance the illegal regime to serve the Turkish settlers and the occupation army on the expense of the majority of the people that have those lands as their homeland.

point 1 - I have not acted hostile to you...you should remember that I am not a hostile person and it would be to everyone on this forums best interest for us to act a little more friendly with one another

point 2 - ok, no one recognises it apart from Turkey and Azerbaijan. But it is still there...

point 3 - so you say that how can EU remove sanctions on TRNC when TRNC does not exist as far as the EU is concerned, right? The same applies to Turkey and RoC...How can turkey remove sanctions on RoC if it does not exist? catch 22

Point 4. I meant the ports in RoC

Point 5. Free healthcare which you have to travel so far suddenly becomes not so free...Will an ambulance come and pick someone up from the TRNC? no...What if you are having an emergency? i dont know if you've crossed the border at all but sometimes the wait is ridiculous. Also, we would like to see the benefits in our towns and villages...Why should none of the revenue we generate be put back into our schooling system? our infrastructure, our town beautification, tourism, social welfare? stuff that we can't go to the GC side to receive...We can't be schooled in the GC side for example...the schools are in greek...we actually can't sign up for the schools unless we live in the GC side...my little cousin tried to sign for an american academy in Nicosia but despite the fact that she lives a 5 minute drive away rejected her application because it wasnt in GC nicosia...


Oh and who said about fear of poor people pouring in to Europe? 1. It can be restricted by not allowing jobless immigrants to move for a few years...2. Well, they didnt seem to mind the fact that Poland were obviously going to pour into the whole EU and now they are everywhere

[Strahd]

point 2 - ok, no one recognises it apart from Turkey and Azerbaijan. But it is still there...

point 3 - so you say that how can EU remove sanctions on TRNC when TRNC does not exist as far as the EU is concerned, right? The same applies to Turkey and RoC...How can turkey remove sanctions on RoC if it does not exist? catch 22

Point 4. I meant the ports in RoC

Point 5. Free healthcare which you have to travel so far suddenly becomes not so free...Will an ambulance come and pick someone up from the TRNC? no...What if you are having an emergency? i dont know if you've crossed the border at all but sometimes the wait is ridiculous. Also, we would like to see the benefits in our towns and villages...Why should none of the revenue we generate be put back into our schooling system? our infrastructure, our town beautification, tourism, social welfare? stuff that we can't go to the GC side to receive...We can't be schooled in the GC side for example...the schools are in greek...we actually can't sign up for the schools unless we live in the GC side...my little cousin tried to sign for an american academy in Nicosia but despite the fact that she lives a 5 minute drive away rejected her application because it wasnt in GC nicosia...


Oh and who said about fear of poor people pouring in to Europe? 1. It can be restricted by not allowing jobless immigrants to move for a few years...2. Well, they didnt seem to mind the fact that Poland were obviously going to pour into the whole EU and now they are everywhere

2. That is the point no one recognises your pseudo state apart from Turkey that created it through military force and ... Azerbaijan (hmmmm)

3.The ROC is part of the EU... as simple as that, how can you be part of a team when you do not recognise one of the members of the team....explain me please.

4. Ports in the occupied areas belong to the ROC but are occupied by the Turkish military forces thus cannot operate

5. Well it is all your choice. You are continuing to support your isolation, you are not allowing the operation of RoC public services in the areas you live... as for schools yes they are greek schools because according to our constitution it is the responsibility of each of the two communities to create and organise their education system. Since you decided not to be part of the RoC if a group of TCs stopped the support of the Turkish military occupation it could easily found a public Turkish RoC school. Since your community continues to support the occupation of our (yours and mine) country how could they talk the ministry of education into letting them found a Turkish school... ???

[zan]

Of course Greece just walked into the EU.

http://www.erabrussels.be/information/e ... e_pace.htm

How times have changed. Greece was a basket case when it entered the then European Community in 1981. It was propelled in, partly under American pressure (sounds familiar?), before many people, including the European Commission, thought it was ready. During the first three years of membership, an army of Commission officials shuttled between Brussels and Athens to coax, cajole and bully the Greek administration into implementing EC policies and giving up centuries-old Levantine practices and habits.

The shock therapy succeeded, although it took time: by the mid-1980s Jacques Delors was still musing out loud that Greek membership had been a mistake.

If the treatment worked for Greece, can it work for the newcomers? The answer is: probably, up to a point. The trouble is that Commission president Romano Prodi does not have enough armies at his disposal to handle the equivalent of ten recalcitrant Greeces. It will be much better if the newcomers are able to emulate the self-help and self-discipline approach adopted by Simitis and his socialist government since 1996. It has been even more crucial to Greece’s success.

This is not to say that Greece has become a star pupil. It has been less astute in using EU membership (and money) to accelerate economic development than the other poor countries, Portugal and Ireland, with which it is inevitably compared. The nation’s wealth – measured in terms of GDP – is still less than 70 percent of the EU average. Greece is among those EU countries most frequently taken to task by the Commission for failing to implement, or for not implementing correctly, EU directives. It can show the same mean streak as other governments in defending national interests – as over Cyprus.

[Simon]

You really are excited over this aren't you Zan, posting it in two different threads.

By the way, you forgot this part:

[quote]Greece sets the pace

Greece has come a long way since it joined the European Union 21 years ago. This makes it a fitting role model for the ten new members as it runs the EU presidency for the first half of 2003. Pity about Iraq.

When the government of Costas Simitis took over the presidency on January 1st, Greece had just ended a year as the fastest-growing economy in the EU. The coming year promises a replay. In 2001 – to general surprise – Greece earned its way into the euro zone. It is as a self-confident core member that the Greek government will put on the style in Athens on April 16th when present and new EU members formally sign the enlargement deal negotiated at the Copenhagen summit last month. [/quote]

AND

[quote]In other words, Greece is now as mainstream as you can get. If the newcomers can be in a similar position in the next ten or so years, the problems of enlargement will be largely over. This is asking a lot. For one thing, with the exception of Cyprus and Slovenia, their national GDPs range between one third and 55 percent of the EU average. Secondly, and more difficult to handle, is the mindset they bring to the Union. Having freed themselves from Soviet colonialism only a dozen years ago, most are reluctant to transfer part of this new-won sovereignty to Brussels. This learning process will be a painful one (as we are seeing over Iraq). But we are moving ahead of the current Greek presidency.[/quote]

[zan]

You really are excited over this aren't you Zan, posting it in two different threads.

By the way, you forgot this part:

Greece sets the pace

Greece has come a long way since it joined the European Union 21 years ago. This makes it a fitting role model for the ten new members as it runs the EU presidency for the first half of 2003. Pity about Iraq.

When the government of Costas Simitis took over the presidency on January 1st, Greece had just ended a year as the fastest-growing economy in the EU. The coming year promises a replay. In 2001 – to general surprise – Greece earned its way into the euro zone. It is as a self-confident core member that the Greek government will put on the style in Athens on April 16th when present and new EU members formally sign the enlargement deal negotiated at the Copenhagen summit last month.

No I did not otherwise I would not have put in the link for you to read

Well done Greece and I will be looking forward to Turkey achieving the same with the aid of EU money. It just goes to show that not every one that enters the EU does so because they have achieved perfection before they do.

[Simon]

You still forgot to include it in your posting, just an honest mistake I guess, highlighting a certain part.

The fact is Greece is in. If Turkey wants to be, well we all know what they have to do.

[zan]

You still forgot to include it in your posting, just an honest mistake I guess, highlighting a certain part.

The fact is Greece is in. If Turkey wants to be, well we all know what they have to do.

Get the Americans on their side

[Simon]

LOL.

Somehow I don't think it will be that simple this time.