It has been announced that the court cases the Greek Cypriot side filed against the European Commission at the Court of Justice of the European Communities (CJEC) have been withdrawn as a result of the compromise the Greek Cypriot side and the Commission have reached.
Hereafter, it should be expected that the Financial Aid Regulation, which is one of the two regulations decided to be implemented by the Council of the European Union with the aim of lifting the isolations imposed on the Turkish Cypriot people, is to be implemented in a much more decisive and speedy manner. Therefore, I would like to state that we welcome this development.
However, it should not be forgotten that this recent position of the Greek Cypriot side has emerged after their demand for “interim measures” to be granted to stop all the implementations regarding the Financial Aid Regulation has been rejected by the CJEC. Withdrawing these cases with the aim of helping the Turkish Cypriots develop their relations with the world, before there was a demand for interim measures and the rejection of the Court would be a fine and meaningful message for the Turkish Cypriot people. Unfortunately, the Greek Cypriot side has decided not to make use of this opportunity and decided to reach a compromise with the EU Commission only after it was final that they will not achieve any results.
The compromise between the Greek Cypriot side and the EU Commission has been reached after an expression in the tender procedures has been changed. Since there is nothing disturbing for the Turkish Cypriot side regarding this change of expression, we will maintain our contributions to the efforts of implementing the Financial Aid Regulation as we have recently been doing so.
In the meantime, considering that the efforts to lift the isolation of the Turkish Cypriot people would contribute to the settlement of the Cyprus problem, these efforts should be maintained. Most important part of these efforts would be the implementation of the Direct Trade Regulation which the Council of the European Union has demanded to be adopted and implemented.
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It is expected that the Greek Cypriot leader Mr. Demetris Christofias will travel to the United Kingdom today with an extensive delegation in order to carry out numerous contacts.
The fact that the Greek Cypriot side has close relations with the United Kingdom, who is one of the three guarantor powers of the 1960 agreements and is closely involved with the Cyprus problem as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, should be deemed as a factor which will contribute to the positive role the UK is assuming in the settlement of the Cyprus problem.
It is well known that the UK, who has similar relations with Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot people, is not only the country who knows the Cyprus problem best and is the closest follower of the developments but it is also the country that has significant amount of information concerning the issue. Our expectation is that this significant amount of information will help positive roles to be assumed for the settlement of the Cyprus problem.
Meanwhile, news items published in the Greek Cypriot press regarding the said visit should also be mentioned.
The Greek Cypriot press has claimed that the UK should give up its ideas regarding the Cyprus problem and “should understand that the idea of parthenogenesis (virgin birth), which originally belonged to the UK, does not serve to the interests (bases, guarantees) of the UK on the island”.
Stating that the first indication of the future position of the UK after Mr. Christofias’ visit would be the resolution of the UN Security Council regarding the extension of the mandate of the UN Peace Forces, the Greek Cypriot press has reminded that the draft resolution is being prepared by the Permanent Representative of the UK.
It is naturally unacceptable that bilateral relations are associated with the works that are being carried out concerning the Cyprus problem under the supervision of the UN. The fact that the Greek Cypriot side has reflected this expectation of theirs to their relations with the UK will definitely have negative effects over the role the UK is trying to assume as well as over the works of finding a comprehensive settlement for the Cyprus problem.
