CYPRUS MAY BLOCK EU ACCESSION TALKS

PanARMENIAN.Net
12.02.2009 12:31 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Cypriot President Demetris Christofias said last
week that Turkey will not be accessed to the European Union as long
as it continues keeping its troops in northern Cyprus.

"Turkey can’t become a member of the union unless it stops the
occupation of Cyprus," he told foreign media reporters in Nicosia.

Earlier last month Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou said Cyprus might
block more chapters in Turkey’s accession negotiations with the EU
in light of an oil exploration dispute between the two countries.

"As long as there are threats regarding the exercise of our sovereign
right to exploit the natural resources within our exclusive economic
zone [in the Mediterranean Sea], it is very difficult for us to start
discussions on the relevant chapter of the negotiations," Kyprianou
said, Gibrahayer e-magazine reports.