PM’S PANDERING TO TURKEY’S ILLEGAL OCCUPATION RISKS DAMAGING UK-CYPRUS RELATIONS, SAYS CONSERVATIVE MEP

News Desk
The London Greek News
Published: 2007/10/30 19:14:26 UTC

Britain’s relations with fellow EU and Commonwealth country Cyprus
may suffer serious damage after Gordon Brown agreed a deal over the
Turkish-occupied north of the island with his Turkish counterpart Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, London Conservative MEP Dr Charles Tannock said today.

Dr Tannock, a long-standing critic of Turkey’s ongoing violations of
UN Security Council resolutions 541 and 550, said Mr Brown’s strategic
agreement with Ankara over northern Cyprus came perilously close to
recognising the occupied north as a de facto state.

The agreement also explicitly recognises the right of Turkish Cypriots
to be represented in the European Parliament – without making the
reunification of the island a precondition.

Dr Tannock said: "Prime Minister Brown would have been better
off demanding that Turkey observes UN resolutions, recognises the
sovereignty and independence of the Republic of Cyprus as an EU member
state and observes its Council of Europe obligations of freedom
of expression by repealing Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code,
which criminalises any criticism of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus
or recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide.

"Although I support EU funds being used for infrastructure projects in
the north of Cyprus to help the Turkish Cypriot community – provided
they do not violate ownership rights of displaced Greek Cypriots – I
also think Gordon Brown should have raised an issue dear to my heart,
namely the wanton destruction and neglect of Greek Orthodox Christian
heritage in the occupied territory."

Charles Tannock MEP Un the European Parliament Tannock is Foreign
Affairs Spokesman for the UK Conservative delegation and is
Vice-President of the Parliament’s Human Rights subcommittee. He
was elected to the UK Conservative delegation Bureau in December
2005. He is a full member of the Foreign Affairs, Common Security,
Defence and Human Rights Committee – where he is also the EPP-ED
Group Deputy Co-ordinator (Spokesman)- and he is also a substitute
member of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee. From 2000-2004
he served in the UK Conservative delegation Whips Office rising to
Deputy Chief Whip. He was between 1999-2001 the Conservative Party
Spokesman on Financial Services. He attended in April 2001 the Joint
EP-Latin American Parliament 2 yearly Conference in Valparaiso,
Chile as a delegate.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress