President Mehmet Ali Talat stated “the Cyprus Question can be and should be solved by the end of 2009” and added “thinking that this is not possible” would be wrong.
After completing his contacts with the Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt in Stockholm and the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in Paris President Mehmet Ali Talat evaluated his contacts on his return to the island. The President said his contacts had been important in terms of directly presenting the Turkish Cypriot views over the negotiations process.
Reminding that Sweden prepares to take over the next EU term-presidency in June, Talat said he met with the Swedish Foreign Minister upon Bildt’s invitation.
`I explained the Swedish Foreign Minister the disappointment we have been feeling because of the ongoing international isolation- which the EU earlier promised to lift` Talat said.
President Talat underlined the need for motivating the Greek Cypriot side for a solution as a unilateral member of the EU.
He told the Minister that the removal of international isolation and inspiring the Greek Cypriot side for a solution within the EU institutions are necessary for the Greek Cypriot motivation.
Reminding the Minister of the fact that the EU has earlier promised to adapt the solution of the Cyprus problem as to be agreed by the two sides, Talat said this promise carries great importance in terms of maintaining the legal envisagement and safety of the political agreement.
Then touching upon his meeting with the UN Secretary general Ban Ki Moon in Paris, Talat stated that he repeated the Turkish Cypriot demand for a more active role of the UN at negotiations.
He said they also discussed the role of the UN Secretary-General within the negotiations process.
`Mr Ban in response told me that the Greek Cypriot Administration wants a solution in Cyprus but does not want any international intervention in the process` the President stated.
Adding that Ban Ki-Moon is closely following up with the Cyprus developments, President Talat said the UN Secretary-General promised him to provide help in removing the international isolation- which Turkish Cypriots are still suffering from despite of earlier international calls for its lifting.
He said he had a very fruitful meeting with Mr Ban.
OBAMA URGES EU TO ACCEPT TURKEY AS A MEMBER
US President Barack Obama is urging the European Union to accept Turkey as a member, saying it would be a positive sign to the Muslim world.
The Us President spoke Sunday at a luncheon for leaders of the EU's 27 nations in Prague. He said the West should seek greater cooperation and closer ties with Islamic nations. He said letting Turkey into the EU would be an important sign of those efforts.
Not surprisingly, the European Commission, which is responsible for handling negotiations with Turkey, immediately welcomed Mr Obama’s comments.
“We have started a process of negotiations with Turkey for full membership,” Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso reminded.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he also backed Obama’s support for EU membership for Turkey, telling reporters he was confident that current obstacles holding back Ankara’s talks with Brussels could be solved by postponing freedom of movement of the Turkish nationals within the EU territory
French President Sarkozy said it was up to the EU member states to decide on Turkish entry and reiterated his opposition. "I have always been opposed to this entry” he told to French F1 television.
“Turkey is a very great country, an ally of Europe, an ally of the United States. It will stay a privileged partner. My position hasn't changed and it won't change," he said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it was clearly in the interest of all to forge ties between the EU and the Muslim world, but asked to comment directly on Obama's remarks, she noted only: "It's clear there are different opinions."
Merkel said the form of any future connection between the EU and Turkey was still not clear, a reference to the possibility of a privileged partnership stopping short of actual membership -- a formula favored by French and German conservatives.
ISRAILI POLICE QUESTION ISRAILI FOREIGN MINISTER IN SOUTH CYPRUS
Israili Police questioned the Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, on suspicion of bribery and asked the banks in Cyprus to investigate allegations that he was involved in money laundering.
The allegations against Avigdor Lieberman concerned the receipt of large sums of money from abroad allegedly channelled through shell companies and illegal bank accounts.
Reports emerged that the Israeli police had approached banking authorities in Cyprus for files on bank accounts connected to Mr Lieberman. The Israeli media reported that Mr Lieberman was suspected of money laundering and receiving bribes through a consulting firm run by his daughter, Michal.
An official with Cyprus's Department for Combating Money Laundering confirmed that Israeli police had asked for information about Mr Lieberman's financial transactions.
Four new enemies of Cyprus in ten days is nothing new
By Loucas Charalambous
(From Greek Cypriot Daily Sunday Mail, 5.4.2009)
IN THE LAST 10 days we have uncovered four new enemies of Cyprus. They include US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, candidate Under-Secretary at the State Department Phillip Gordon, President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso and the UNFICYP Chief of Staff Colonel Hughes.
Four new enemies of the Republic in the space of 10 days is not an unusual haul. For 50 years now, our leading political lights, from the late Makarios to DIKO’s Zacharias Koulias, do little else other than identify foreign foes. In fact, very few foreign politicians have failed to earn the label of ‘enemy of Cyprus’ if they had anything to do with us.
If I have the time, one day I will do some proper research on the matter. I will collect and publish in a book the names of all the foreign enemies of Cyprus that were discovered by our leadership since 1960. If, with the help of God, I am able to realise this ambition, I am certain that I will need two volumes to get all the names in.
I will probably be able to find all the names by scouring through the archives of Phileleftheros, which has named and shamed all the foreign culprits over the years. In there I will find all our enemies, all the conspirators and all the traps they had set up to catch us out over the last 50 years.
Hillary Clinton’s big sin was that she had agreed to meet with Mehmet Ali Talat. The laurels for the reported cancellation (or was it postponement?) of the meeting were claimed by the Greek-American lobby and Foreign Minister Marcos Kyprianou, who, as he gets older is becoming more and more like his father.
One could of course ask: why would we mind if Clinton met Talat? The Turkish Cypriot leader has already met two US Secretaries of State (Powell and Rice), the President of the European Commission and a host of world leaders. What great damage would be done to our case if he also met Clinton? At most, she could have encouraged Talat to make a bigger effort to reach a settlement. Could it be this prospect which so annoyed our wise politicians?
Until a while ago, we considered Barroso our friend. So much so, President Christofias asked him to personally undertake an EU mediation initiative in the Cyprus peace process (as opposed to the ‘bad’ Olli Rehn). Now, Garoyian, Omirou, Perdikis and even Anastassiades (this is the most unbelievable) are accusing him of unacceptable behaviour and of absolving Turkey of any guilt.
I also like the case of Phil Gordon. The well-read Garoyian caught him out, exposing him as “not having done his homework in the relation to the commitments of [President] Obama” and advised him to “try to be better informed” about the views of his president.
As for Colonel Hughes, his big indiscretion was that he had miscalculated the number of Turkish troops on the island and estimated it to be 24,000 instead of 42,000. Omirou, who has counted the Turkish soldiers, reliably informed us that Hughes came up with the smaller number because he was a Turkophile.
Why am I writing this again? It is because this stupidity is not a phenomenon of the last 10 days but has been part of our political culture for the last 50 years – a culture that knows only how to identify enemies all over the planet and to engage in feuds with the whole world. But this is the type of people we are and it is why we have these leaders. We have had the political leaders we deserve
This is why I have always maintained that we have been extremely lucky not have suffered much worse ills in these past 50 years.
No comments:
Post a Comment