Cyprus International News on Cyprus.............

Kikapu · professor

Obama promises US leadership for settlement
By Jean Christou

US DEMOCRATIC presidential candidate Barack Obama and his candidate for the Vice-Presidency, Senator Joe Biden have said Cyprus should remain a single country.

A statement issued yesterday from the candidates` policy plan for a stronger partnership with Europe, said: Obama and Biden “believe strongly that Cyprus should remain a single country in which each of the two communities on the island is able to exercise substantial political authority in its own geographical zone – with a just and mutually agreed settlement of difficult issues like property refugees, land and security”.

“Seeking a just and lasting political settlement on Cyprus : Barack Obama and Joe Biden will show US leadership in seeking to negotiate a political settlement on Cyprus,” it added.

The statement said that a negotiated political settlement on Cyprus would not only end the island’s tragic division but would pave the way to prosperity and peace throughout the entire region.

“It would finally repose to the people of Cyprus after many years of division and uncertainty. It would help foster better Greek-Turkish relations, strengthen Turkish democracy, reduce the risk of military conflict, and remove a major obstacle to Turkish membership in the EU,” the statement said.

Meanwhile on the domestic front, ruling AKEL said yesterday that President Demetris Christofias had made it quite clear that he would not budge on the issue on timetables in the new negotiating process.

The Turkish Cypriot side has been accusing Christofias of dragging his feet during the talks. Yesterday Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat urged Christofias to prove that he wanted a solution.

Talat said Christofias had supported former President Tassos Papadopoulos who had “destroyed the greatest opportunity for a solution in Cyprus”.

“Now he must prove his desire for a solution,” Talat was quoted as saying. “If he can prove this it will be possible to solve the Cyprus problem.” Similar comments came from Turkish Cypriot “Foreign Minister” Turgut Avic in New York where he was due to meet the UN’s Lynn Pascoe, and Alain Le Roy, a deputy UN Secretary General.

But AKEL spokesman Andros Kyprianou, commenting on Christofias` speech to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, said: '”The President of the Republic made clear in the clearest manner the basis upon which to pursue the solution of the Cyprus problem.”

“He made it clear that this process is from Cypriots and for Cypriots and that it would exclude stifling timetables, arbitration and other impositions.”

He said Christofias had managed to reverse the negative international climate for Greek Cypriots by insisting on fair and just demands.

“We are confident that in this process, Demetris Christofias will proceed with determination and the necessary flexibility in the negotiating process,” Kyprianou added.

Statement by the President of the Republic Mr Demetris Christofias
to the General Debate of the 63rd Session
of the General Assembly of the United Nations

Mr. President,

I wish first to extend to you sincere congratulations on your election as President of the 63rd session of the General Assembly of the United Nations and also to express appreciation for the work done by your predecessor Mr. Srgjan Kerim.

I would like also to thank the Secretary-General for his report on the work of the Organisation and welcome his comprehensive approach to threats as well as his focus on recently emerged challenges.

It is an honour for me to address the General Assembly for the first time as the President of the Republic of Cyprus. Maintaining the effectiveness of multilateral diplomacy and strengthening the relevance of the United Nations is one of the cornerstones of the foreign policy of Cyprus since its independence in 1960.

Mr. President,

The United Nations is important to the international community and it is particularly important to Cyprus.

It is an essential institution for our global survival and for the further development of humanity in a balanced and fair way in increasingly difficult conditions. Our peoples look to the United Nations as the best forum for addressing global problems such as poverty, climate change, rising energy and food prices, diseases, natural disasters, human rights abuses and many other pressing global problems. Either we do things together in a collective, coordinated way or the problems will persist and become even less manageable.

This week two vitally important issues are being given particular attention, namely the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and special needs for Africa. I applaud the focus being given to both, highlighting the imperative for collective action by the international community. We must however match our words with deeds.

Mr. President,

Cyprus emerged from colonialism as an impoverished independent state in 1960. Its prospects did not seem good. Short on natural resources, suffering persistent, recurring droughts, a small island state with the inherent problems of distance from major markets, did not augur well for the young Republic. But we worked hard to redress the balance against us and managed to achieve growth and economic development.

The Turkish invasion of 1974 was a major economic and human catastrophe. One third of our people became refugees in their own country. But we persevered to overcome this disaster. We provided the refugees not only with the means for survival but also with the means for economic re-activation. Our experience engenders solidarity for all those who are struggling for their survival and their own development.

Cyprus is firmly committed to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and maintains an emphasis on Africa in its overseas development assistance projects. Our approach is to focus on a small number of countries concentrating our efforts on infrastructural development in the health and education sectors.

Cyprus gradually intensifies its efforts by increasing the level of assistance to additional countries.

Mr. President,

Small states have higher stakes in multilateral diplomacy and in a fair and functional system of collective security based on the principles of sovereign equality and respect of territorial integrity.

There is no clearer example of this than Cyprus. From the earliest days of its independence, Cyprus was forced to appeal to the world community for support in order to defend and preserve its independence, its sovereignty and its territorial integrity. It became a victim of foreign interference which sowed the seeds for domestic problems for the new state. These difficulties were exploited in the service of strategic interests alien to our independence and our territorial integrity. The culmination was the military coup instigated by the military junta of Athens and the Turkish military invasion of July-August 1974.

But Cyprus survived. The will of the international community for Cyprus to survive is found in the plethora of Security Council and General Assembly Resolutions, regrettably most of them not implemented. But the moral support and resolute stance provided Cyprus with the sword and shield that has ensured that it has remained and will continue to remain an undivided independent country, with a single sovereignty, single citizenship and single international personality.

In addition, the United Nations Resolutions for Cyprus contain two other elements. They provide for a process of negotiations in the form of a Good Offices Mission of the Secretary-General and - very importantly - they define the legal/political framework on which the discussions for the federal architecture of the Cyprus state will be built. Both of these elements are crucial and our success in the new effort which is beginning now -I firmly believe - will depend on respecting these essential conditions.

As regards the process, Good Offices Mission of the Secretary-General means negotiations in which the Cypriots themselves are the principal players. They are the owners of the process. The Cypriots themselves must build the state they envision for their society. The role of the Secretary-General and of the international community is to assist and to support. Good Offices is not arbitration. It is not mediation. Recent experience has shown that any attempt to impose - even to import - non-Cypriot inspired and improvised models will meet with rejection by the Cypriot people.

The relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions are also important for the new effort because they provide the legal political framework within which the effort must move. This framework prescribes a bizonal, bicommunal federation with single international personality, single indivisible sovereignty and single citizenship. The federal institutions will embody the principle of political equality as defined by relevant UN Security Council resolutions not as numerical equality but as effective participation of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities in all organs of the federal state.

It is important to remind ourselves that a bizonal, bicommunal federation has been the only mutually agreed basis dating back to 1977 and reaffirmed as recently as a few weeks ago. It represents a compromise and indeed the only possible compromise on which a political arrangement can be built. Relevant Resolutions of the Security Council as well as the Constitution of Cyprus exclude partition, secession or union with any other country.

The kind of solution we agree to must not only take into account our history and international legality. It must also take into account what kind of society we are and what kind of society we want to bequeath to our children. In this society, all Cypriot children must be born free and equal. Human rights and the fair satisfaction of human needs must take precedence to strategic considerations dictated by political expediencies.

Mr. President,

On September 3, a new intensive effort started with the aim of overcoming the impasses of the past and achieving progress that would lead to the reunification of Cyprus under mutually agreed terms and to the withdrawal of foreign troops after 34 years of division and foreign occupation. For this effort to succeed what is needed is political will on the part of the Cypriots, but also the positive engagement of other important players which for historical reasons have been part of the problem and need to become part of the solution.

For my part, I want to assure you from this podium that my political will to do what is necessary to solve the problem is firm and deep-rooted. My origins are in the popular movement of Cyprus which prides itself of a long history of struggles and indeed sacrifices in defence of friendship, cooperation and peaceful coexistence between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots. On the other hand, I am one of those Cypriots that were deeply and directly affected by the foreign military invasion of 1974 because I myself and my family are internally displaced persons, refugees in our own country.

The role of the Cypriots is to agree on what they want. This we must try to achieve with the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community, Mehmet Ali Talat. And I believe that we could achieve it.

But this is not enough for achieving a solution. Turkey should contribute to the process in a positive way. Turkey still maintains over 40,000 troops and tens of thousands of settlers in Cyprus and can, without doubt, determine the outcome of the issues under discussion. We believe that the solution should benefit everybody and will benefit everybody. It would allow the Cypriots, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, to live together and work together in an independent prosperous country, within the family of the European Union, without the presence of foreign armies and illegal colonists, under conditions of security and respect for their identity and their rights.

Mr President,

Our world faces many problems which are increasingly becoming more complex. It is our conviction that these problems can be solved and new threats can be prevented only through effective multilateral collective action.

Peace must prevail. A true peace based on respect of international law and not the right of might. A response to the problem of international terrorism will only be effective if our world becomes less unjust. Without tackling hunger and poverty, without solving regional disputes on the basis of international legitimacy and without a more fair distribution of global wealth, peace can not grow firm roots.

The United Nations is an achievement of our fathers and a necessary tool for insuring a more stable, fair and prosperous world. Ultimately the UN is only as successful as we, the member states, allow it to be.

I wish our community of nations a successful 63rd General Assembly session.

Thank you.
__________________

Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2008

http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main.php?id=41588

Kikapu · professor

ReutersPublished: September 26, 2008

Former U.S. President Carter and Tutu to visit Cyprus

NICOSIA: Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter will visit Cyprus in October to offer support for reunification talks between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, diplomats said on Friday.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former Algerian Foreign Minister Lakhdar Brahimi will also travel to the island from October 8-9 for meetings with the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders.

"After decades of division, this is a time of hope for the people of this beautiful island. These opportunities don't come around very often," Tutu was quoted as saying in a statement issued by The Elders, a group of world leaders formed in 2007 by former South African President Nelson Mandela.

Cyprus was split in a 1974 Turkish invasion triggered by a Greek-inspired coup. Turkish Cypriots live in its north and Greek Cypriots in the south, and numerous attempts to reunite Cyprus have failed.

Newly elected Greek Cypriot leader Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat started a new round of reunification talks on September 3.

"We will do what we can to ensure that the foresight and courage of Mr Talat and Mr Christofias are acknowledged and supported in Cyprus, in the region and around the world," Tutu said.

The next round of Cyprus talks are expected on October 10. Although there is no cut off date for talks, the Cyprus stalemate is complicating Turkey's bid to join the European Union, where Greek Cypriots represent the island.

The United Nations is expected to be largely hands-off in the present round of consultations. A U.N. reunification blueprint for the island rejected by Greek Cypriots in 2004.

If the sides agree to a deal, it will need to be approved by Cypriots in separate community referendums.

(Reporting by Michele Kambas, editing by Elizabeth Piper)

http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/09/26/europe/OUKWD-UK-CYPRUS-TALKS-CARTER.php

Kikapu · professor

The Associated PressPublished: November 5, 2008

EU tells Turkey to speed up reforms for entry bid

BRUSSELS, Belgium: Turkey should not blame the slow pace of EU membership talks on others, the bloc's enlargement chief said Wednesday, calling on the country to speed up reforms.

Negotiations to bring the predominantly Muslim nation into the EU started in 2005, but they have been bogged down amid bickering between both sides on issues that include human rights and Turkey's refusal to recognize Cyprus.

"The road toward EU membership goes, not through excuses, but through concrete reforms in Turkey itself," EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said after presenting Turkey's annual progress report on its bid to join the EU.

"I call on Turkey to re-energize its reform efforts to advance fundamental freedoms and the rule of law," Rehn said.

Wednesday's report listed many areas where the EU believes Turkey is making insufficient progress toward democratic standards, including the influence of the military on political leaders, anti-corruption efforts, human rights, gender equality and respect for minorities.

Still, the 2008 report card praises Turkey for making economic progress and improving trade ties. The EU is by far the most important trade partner of Turkey, and Turkey is the EU's No. 7 trade partner.

Turkey's Foreign Ministry welcomed the fact that the EU has made reference to Turkey's importance to the bloc and said EU membership remained Turkey's most basic strategic goal.

"Turkey's commitment to the goal of integration with Europe continues. Our determination to fully implement political and economic criteria that will allow our people to reach the highest standards remains firm," it said.

But Turkey is growing anxious about its membership bid and wants to be given a target date by which to wrap up entry talks. Even if Turkey meets all entry criteria, all 27 EU nations will have to approve its membership bid. France has already expressed concern.

Rehn, however, blamed Turkey's politicians for the delays.

"The key to make progress is not by politicians repeating to ask for a date," he said. "The key is to sit down, agree on the reforms in the government, in the parliament and encourage the administration to implement the reforms seriously."

Rehn referred to this year's constitutional crisis during which opposition parties tried to ban Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party because it allegedly threatened secularism. The nomination of Abdullah Gul, the former foreign minister from the ruling Islamic-oriented party, for president last year was also opposed by secularists.

"These have consumed a lot of energy and have caused stagnation in the essential reforms that are needed to make progress," Rehn said.

The EU's report, however, supported Turkey's bid, saying the country's position at the crossroads of Europe, and energy-rich Middle East and the Caucasus "gives the country a vital role in the EU's energy security."

The annual report card is an eagerly awaited annual event for both proponents and opponents of Turkey's membership in the EU.

Of the 35 negotiating areas to become member only eight are under negotiation, and the EU has accused Turkey of acting too slow on reforms and remains critical of Ankara's refusal to recognize EU member Cyprus.

Cyprus was divided into an internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south and a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north in 1974, when Turkey invaded after a coup by Athens-backed supporters of union with Greece. The south is an EU member, while the north is only recognized by Turkey.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/11/05/europe/EU-EU-Turkey.php

"The road toward EU membership goes, not through excuses, but through concrete reforms in Turkey itself,"

"The EU is by far the most important trade partner of Turkey, and Turkey is the EU's No. 7 trade partner."

Nikitas · professor

They just do not understand that joining this particular club is not subject to negotiation. You either meet the entry qualifications or you do not. Turkey cannot cash its strategic position against membership.