TRNC NEWS HEADLINES

FULL-FLEDGED NEGOTIATIONS CONTINUE TODAY

President Mehmet Ali Talat and the Leader of the Greek Cypriot Administration Demetris Christofias will continue the Cyprus peace talks today.

Full-fledged negotiations aimed at finding a comprehensive solution to the Cyprus Problem will be held at the building reserved for the negotiations in the UN protected area in Lefkosa.

The two leaders in Cyprus who agreed to meet on a weekly basis will continue to discuss the issues of federal governance, presidency and wise-presidency.

“SETTLEMENT BEFORE EU PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN 2009”

A joint decision was taken at the end of a meeting held by the Republican Turkish Party (CTP) and the Greek Cypriot main coalition DISI party to support and encourage the two leaders on their efforts towards reaching a settlement before next years EU parliamentary elections.

Delegations from the Republican Turkish Party and the Greek Cypriot DISI party came together at the CTP headquarters in central Lefkosa yesterday.

The delegations headed by CTP leader-Prime Minister Ferdi Sabit Soyer and his DISI counterpart Nıkos Anastasiadis discussed the ongoing negotiations process.

Speaking at a joint press conference at the end of the meeting, the CTP leader-Prime Minister Soyer said that they had held a productive meeting with DISI officials and had reached an agreement on putting forward the necessary efforts in support of the ongoing process.” We have agreed on working together towards creating a basis for solution that both sides will agree. Thanking DISI for its sincere support to a solution in Cyprus , the CTP leader stressed that finding a solution to the Cyprus Problem as soon as possible was to everyone’s interest.

For his part the leader of the Greek Cypriot Democratic Rally Party Nikos Anastasiadis also described his meeting with the CTP as useful and reminded that both parties supported the two leaders’ efforts. He said that there was a convergence in views between the two parties regarding the encouragement of the two leaders and the urgent need to reach a settlement.

Responding to a question on the issue of guarantees, Anastasiadis said that the important thing was to find a settlement but an EU country did not need the guarantor countries.

“If you ask me, an EU member country does not need the guarantorship of another country. However it could be possible to all guarantees for a short period of time for the sake of re-establishing confidence between the two communities” he said.

BABACAN: ‘OUR MEMBERSHIP TO SECURITY COUNCIL WILL NOT CHANGE OUR CYPRUS POLICY’

Evaluating Turkey ’s non-permanent membership to the UN Security Council for 2009-2010 Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan stressed that there will be no change in Turkey ’s positions on foreign policy issues and said ‘whatever we said about Cyprus issue till today we will keep saying the same.’

Babacan underlined that Turkey has a foreign policy line, there are words that spend and steps put forward and these will not change with our membership. We will say the same things as before on the Cyprus Issue, Caucasian Problem and Middle East .

ERCAKICA: ‘THEY ARE PRESENTING THEIR DREAM SOLUTION AS THE AGREED ONE’

Spokesman of TRNC Presidency Hasan Erçakıca stated that Greek Side which is presenting their point of view as the agreed conditions of two sides are forgetting that the agreement of the new state will be made up of two equal founding states.

Ercakıca mentioned that the Greek Cypriot Spokesmen are presenting the solution not as agreed by the two sides but as their dream.

UBP VISITS DISI

National Unity Party (UBP), which is the main opposition party in the TRNC, will visit the main opposition party in South Cyprus , Democratic Rally Party (DISI) on 24 October 2008.

This will be UBP’s first visit to a political party in South Cyprus; leader of UBP Tahsin Ertugruloglu will cross to South Cyprus for the first time after 1972.

REACTIONS TO DISI

The newspapers in South Cyprus published that the Greek Cypriot political parties reacted to the statements made by leader of DISI Nikos Anastasiadis on guarantorship.

Mahi newspaper published the news under the headline “We should not Create Expectations among the People” and stated that leader of DISI Anastasiadis made a relation between Zurich Constitution and the subject of guarantee.

According to the news, Anastasiadis expressed “by considering the existing possibilities within the framework of direct negotiations, the expectations which will not meet the requests of the people should not be created”.

Anastasiadis also emphasized that there should be self criticism and he stated that during the past years all political leadership made statements such as “all emigrants should go back to their homes.”

Emphasizing “we should be very careful for some subjects in order not to cause the refusal of a possible solution by disappointing the people”, Anastasiadis asked “do we accept 1960 guaratees?” and added:

“If the Turkish Cypriots come tomorrow and state that they accept Zurich Agreement, will Greek Cypriot side state that there are Guarantorship Agreements and refuse the unified state?”

CYPRUS PRODUCERS NETWORK (CPN) IN FORCE

Cyprus Producers' Network, which is a bi-communal project, has been put in force successfully by the Cyprus Turkish Chamber of Industry (KTSO), the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce (KTTO) and the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KEBE).

In this joint initiative framework, a common web portal, which address is “www.cpnnet.net” has been established. It is designed for the use of KTSO, KTTO and KEBE members only. The objective of the project is to establish a network between Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot producers in order to increase cooperation as well as to provide technical assistance, training and advice in the promotion of Green Line Trade.

The results from the implementation of the Cyprus Producers’ Network (CPN) project have been announced by an activity at the Fulbright Centre in the Green Line. Promotion Campaign of the CPN web portal was also made there.