SWOBODA: PAPADOPOULOS SHOULD MEET WITH TALAT

The New Anatolian, Turkey
Nov 1 2006

European Parliament Socialist member Hannes Swoboda yesterday called
on Greek Cypriot Tassos Papadopoulos to show more willingness to meet
with Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat on a regular basis to
make progress in solving the Cyprus problem.

Commenting on EU Term President Finland’s recent efforts for Cyprus
talks in Helsinki but disagreements on the format of the meetings,
Swoboda said that it was natural that Turkish Foreign Minister
Abdullah Gul was invited to these talks and further said it was more
meaningful at this stage to continue these talks on the level of
foreign ministers.

"Papadopoulos should show more eagerness to meet Talat on a regular
basis," Swoboda said, showing uneasiness with the Greek Cypriot
leader’s long reluctance to have direct, face-to-face talks with
the Turkish Cypriot leader. Swoboda underlined that Papadopoulos
politically had relatively a stronger position and expectations from
him to make steps forward were much higher.

The socialist MEP underlined that there will be a need weeks before
Dec. 15, when the EU will decide on Cyprus and Turkey’s accession
process, for Papadopoulos to head talks that aim to overcome the
controversy.

Asked to comment on Turkey’s request from Finland for Greece’s
participation in these talks, Swoboda said this was not necessary
and in fact could more complicate the process.

The MEP also underlined that while EU has not fulfilled its promises
yet to Turkish Cypriots to put an end to their isolation, Turkey’s
opening its ports to Greek Cypriots was a legal obligation and was
not directly related with the issue of isolation.

Socialist members of the European Parliament Jan Marinus Wiersma
and Pasqualina Napoletano together with Swoboda called on Turkey
to make progress in reforms and their implementation, underlining
that it was necessary to change the image of Turkey in Europe. The
deputies, at their press conference at the EU delegation in Ankara,
stressed that the controversial Article 301 of the penal code is
unacceptable and should be changed, independent from discussions of
French Parliament and its move to make it a crime to question claims
of an Armenian genocide.