Cyprus not seeking to derail Turkey EU bid
 

AFP - "Cyprus not seeking to derail Turkey EU bid":
NICOSIA / 22 October 2006

The president of Cyprus said yesterday he was not seeking to derail Turkey's
European Union accession as long as Ankara upheld its EU obligations by
opening its ports to Cypriot traffic.

"No country wishes to terminate Turkey's accession talks," Tassos
Papadopoulos told reporters on returning from an EU summit in Finland.

"Neither does the Cyprus Republic seek a crisis that would stop Turkey's
accession course on the understanding Turkey respects its obligations
towards Europe," he added.

Papadopoulos said the bloc's 25 members were agreed that a solution needed
to be found by the end of the year to avoid a crisis with Turkey but that
"no one has a specific proposal on how" to do so.

Finland, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, is seeking a compromise
deal that will placate both Nicosia and Ankara.

The deal reportedly offers partial access to Turkish ports while opening the
northern port of Famagusta under EU supervision with Greek Cypriots being
allowed to return to the UN-protected resort town of Varosha.
Papadopoulos has said no proposal would be considered unless it involved the
return of the fenced-off area of Varosha to its legal inhabitants.

Cyprus says Finland has yet to officially submit any concrete proposal but
has only expressed a "few ideas".
It is opposed to opening any more chapters in the accession negotiations
until the ports issue is resolved.
The EU Commission's progress report on Turkey's accession talks is expected
on November 8.

Turkey has signed a customs union agreement with the EU extending a trade
protocol to the 10 new members, including Cyprus, that joined the bloc in
May 2004.

But it refuses to open its air and sea ports to vessels from Cyprus - whose
Greek Cypriot government it does not recognise - unless the EU makes good on
a promise to break the economic isolation of the divided island's Turkish
Cypriot north.

Turkey says it will not recognise Cyprus until a global solution is found to
the island's three decades of division along ethnic lines.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkish troops seized and occupied
its northern third in respon.

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