TRNC NEWS HEADLINES

NABUCCO CARD AGAINST SOUTH CYPRUS BLOCKAGE

The Project of Nabucco Natural Gas Pipeline was on the agenda at the Brussels visit of Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In this first visit of Turkish Premier to Brussels upon an invitation of the President of the European Commission since 1996, Erdogan gave the message that if the Greek Cypriot administration blocks the opening of energy chapter between Turkey and EU, they would review their position on Nabucco pipeline.

Nabucco alternative project, which would carry the gas from Central Asia to Europe via Turkey , gain importance because of gas crisis caused by a dispute between Russia and Ukraine that has led to gas shortages across the continent, was on Erdogan’s agenda. Erdogan called EU not to prefer Southern Cyprus, which is located far away from Europe and with only 700-800 thousand people, to Turkey with 70 million people.

European Union aims to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian gas with the proposed Nabucco pipeline that would carry supplies from the Caspian Sea or Middle East via Turkey to Europe . The pipeline, which has six shareholders OMV of Austria, MOL of Hungary, Transgaz of Romania, Bulgargaz of Bulgaria, Botas of Turkey and RWE of Germany, is proposed to carry up to 30 billion meters of gas per year, or roughly 6 per cent of EU consumption.

ERDOGAN: ‘ALTHOUGH THERE IS NO SOLUTION, EU ACCESSION OF SOUTH CYPRUS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE’

Reminding that South Cyprus ’s accession to the EU before a comprehensive solution was not compatible to the Acquis Commmunitaire, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said ‘Shouldn’t we take it into consideration? This is not acceptable’.

Moreover, mentioning that they were decided to reach a solution at the ongoing negotiations in Cyprus as soon as possible, Erdogan said that they supported the effort of Turkish Cypriot President.

Erdogan added that they expected EU to be ‘fair’ and they would not accept discrimination.

SOME TURKISH AND GREEK POLITICAL PARTIES CONDEMNED GREEK CYPRIOT ATTACKS TO THE TURKISH CYPRIOTS WITH A COMMON STATEMENT

CTP-BG, TDP and BKP from North Cyprus and AKEL, DISI, DIKO, EDI, and ADIK from South Cyprus announced that they strongly condemned the attacks of a group of Greek Cypriots to the Turkish Cypriots who were visiting South Cyprus in a common statement.

The above mentioned political parties expressed their expectations that the responsible people should be found out and handed over to justice. They indicated that such events affect the relations between the two communities negatively and push the solution process to a deadlock.

Turkish and Greek Cypriot political parties called the people to continue efforts towards a solution and reunification of the island and to isolate the chauvinist groups.