EU commissioner in Turkey

EUROPEAN Union commissioner Hans van den Broek arrived in Ankara yesterday ahead of a day of talks on the tensions between Greece and Turkey that have blighted Turkey’s hopes for full EU membership.

“We are working very hard to make further progress… on important questions around Cyprus and questions about the relationship with Greece,” Foreign Affairs Commissioner van den Broek told reporters at Ankara airport.

Van den Broek is to meet senior members of Turkey’s conservative-led coalition, including Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz and Foreign Minister Ismail Cem.

“There is quite a lot to discuss,” he said.

As well as the status of small islands in the Aegean, Greece and Turkey are also at odds over Cyprus, which is in the running for early membership of the EU – a prospect which Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots in the occupied north oppose.

Turkey says that Cypriot EU membership would only represent half of the island and would entrench the divisions in place since Turkey invaded in 1974 in response to a Greek-backed coup.

Turkey also wants to join the EU but the rows with Greece, economic problems and a poor human rights record have all hampered its membership bid.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.