GREEK PM URGES TURK TROOP WITHDRAWAL FROM CYPRUS
Menelaos Hadjicostis

Hurriyet Daily News
Oct 20 2009
Turkey

Greek Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias (R) shakes hands with
Greek prime minister George Papandreou after their meeting at the
presidential palace in the divided capital of Nicosia on Oct. 19.

Greece’s new prime minister is in Cyprus on his first official visit
abroad to hold talks with the Greek Cypriot government on efforts to
reunify the island. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Greece’s new prime minister urged Turkey on Monday to withdraw
thousands of its troops from Cyprus to help ongoing talks aimed at
reunifying the divided island.

The long-festering dispute on the eastern Mediterranean island has
poisoned relations between Greece and Turkey, both NATO members,
undermining the military alliance and European Union cooperation on
security and hindering Turkey’s bid for EU membership.

"It is a matter that either we solve to unite us, or it will keep
us divided," George Papandreou said after talks with Greek Cypriot
President Dimitris Christofias.

Cyprus was split into a Turkish Cypriot north and a Greek Cypriot
south in 1974. The island joined the European Union in 2004, but only
Greek Cypriots enjoy the benefits of membership.

"Certainly, occupation troops cannot be allowed to exist in an EU
member state, especially by an EU candidate country," said Papandreou,
who is paying his first official visit abroad as prime minister after
winning general elections earlier this month.

Year-long talks between Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet
Ali Talat have so far produced little real progress.

Christofias is blaming Turkey for restricting Talat’s ability to
negotiate an agreement on complex issues such as power-sharing under
a federal structure and arrangements on property lost during the war.

Turkey says it fully backs the peace process.

The Greek Cypriot leader renewed his support for Turkey’s bid to
join the EU, but added: "We are not masochists … We cannot accept
Turkey proceeding to full union membership without first achieving
a Cyprus settlement."

Cyprus is already blocking the key energy chapter in EU-Turkey
accession talks – one of 35 that Turkey must negotiate with the bloc.