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Sunday, November 24, 2024  
22 Jumada Al-Awwal 1446  

Cyprus sees EU report on Turkey as 'positive'

Cyprus sees EU report on Turkey as 'positive'Cyprus said on Wednesday it was satisfied with a European Commission report warning Turkey of unspecified damage to its EU entry bid if Ankara refused to meet its obligations toward the divided island.
President Tassos Papadopoulos, on a visit to Split in Croatia, said it contained "several positive points", the Cyprus News Agency reported.
"Some other points could have been more specific and more detailed regarding Turkey's stance. But on the whole it is positive," said Papadopoulos, the Greek Cypriot leader.
His Foreign Minister George Lillikas, meanwhile, told state television: "We are satisfied because it (the report) says Turkey has to fulfil its obligations to Cyprus."
However, Lillikas also called for a political debate within the bloc on what the consequences should be if Turkey falls short of honouring those obligations.
"We need a political discussion, because this is a political matter, over Turkey's non-compliance to see if there is a convergence of views on this issue," said the minister.
He said Cyprus did not want to "create a crisis" but instead hoped to "assist" Turkey's membership process as long as it showed the necessary political will.
The Commission said it would make "relevant recommendations" ahead of the EU summit in December if Turkey had not fulfilled its obligations.
This gives Ankara a five-week deadline by which to honour its trade obligations to Cyprus, during which time it can also mull a compromise deal drawn up by the Finnish presidency.
But Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat was quoted as saying on Wednesday that the Finnish formula had no chance of success because it was "unbalanced".
"Finland says the process is not yet over but in my opinion these proposals have no chance of working out... because they were unbalanced from the very beginning," Talat said, Anatolia news agency reported.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkey seized its northern third in response to a Greek Cypriot coup engineered by the military junta then in power in Athens to try to unite the island with Greece.
Turkey signed the Ankara Protocol in July 2005 extending its customs agreement with the EU's 15 oldest members to the 10 newcomers, which includes Cyprus.
But it refuses to open trade to Cyprus despite repeated EU calls and says it first wants the EU to ease the isolation of the impoverished Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), recognised only by Ankara.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2006