Top general to visit occupied areas

TURKEY’S Chief of Staff will visit the occupied areas tomorrow, military forces in the occupied areas said yesterday.

The announcement said General Ismail H. Karadayi, Turkey’s top military man, would spend two days in the north. His visit comes in the wake of tension caused by the tit-for-tat visits of Greek and Turkish fighter jets to the island last month.

That tension was again highlighted yesterday as the British Foreign Office sought to play down crisis fears in the wake of report on the British satellite news network Sky News about contingency plans to evacuate the island. The Foreign Office said that it did not think there was an imminent crisis on the island, and “had made it quite clear” that there was no reason for caution with regard to visiting Cyprus.

“I do not think Sky News knows of something in Cyprus that we do not,” a spokesman said.

The comments came as the new Austrian presidency of the European Union called on Britain’s European Union presidency representative for Cyprus, Sir David Hannay, to continue his work, even though Britain has now passed on the presidency.

Speaking at a press conference in Brussels, Austrian Chancellor Viktor Klima went on to say that Austrian Foreign Minister Wolfgang Schussel would make every effort on behalf of Cyprus during his country’s presidency, and expressed the hope that these efforts would lead to an agreement.