MEPS: TURKEY MUST RECOGNISE CYPRUS AND OPEN ITS BORDERS TO CYPRIOT VESSELS
Financial Mirror, Cyprus
Cyprus News Agency
Aug 5 2006
The European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee urged Turkey to
recognize the Republic of Cyprus, an EU member state since May 1,
2004, and open its borders to Cypriot vessels and airplanes.
In a report adopted on Monday, the Committee urges Turkey "to take
concrete steps for the normalization of bilateral relations with
Cyprus as soon as possible" and refers to the EU Council declaration
of 21 September 2005, which said that continuing negotiations would
depend on Turkey opening its borders to Cypriot vessels and airplanes
and that the recognition of Cyprus is a necessary component of the
negotiating process.
Regarding Cyprus itself, MEPs welcomed the meeting between the leader
of the Greek Cypriot community Tassos Papadopoulos and the leader
of the Turkish Cypriot community Mehmet Ali Talat, that led to the
agreement of 8 July, 2006.
The Foreign Affairs Committee called on Turkey to recognize the
Armenian genocide as a precondition for its EU accession and although
welcoming the start of the accession negotiations with Turkey, it
expressed regret that the reform process in Turkey has slowed down.
The report, prepared by Camiel Eurlings (EPP-ED, NL) and adopted
by 53 votes in favour to six against with eight abstentions, notes
"persistent shortcomings" in areas such as freedom of expression,
religious and minority rights, the role of the military, policing,
women’s rights, trade union rights and cultural rights. It urges
Turkey to "reinvigorate" the reform process.
MEPs repeated that negotiations do no lead automatically to accession
and said that whether or not negotiations are successfully concluded,
Turkey must remain "fully anchored in European structures."
It also called for a lowering of the threshold of ten percent of
the votes below which political parties cannot enter the Turkish
parliament.
The text will be debated by the whole Parliament during the EP plenary
session of 25 – 28 September.
Before the start of the vote, Eurlings said that "unfortunately,
reforms have clearly slowed down" and expressed hope that the Turkish
government would regard his report "as a signal and an incentive to
reintroduce the vigorous speed of reform it had shown in the year
before accession negotiations started."
President Tassos Papadopoulos and Turkish Cypriot leader Talat
agreed on July 8th 2006, during a meeting here in the presence of
UN Undersecretary General for political affairs Ibrahim Gambari,
to begin a process of bicommunal discussions on issues that affect
the day to day life of the people and concurrently those that concern
substantive issues, both contributing to a comprehensive settlement
to the Cyprus problem.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
