By Martin Hellicar
TURKISH Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz arrived in the occupied areas yesterday threatening that divisions on the island would “deepen” should Cyprus join the EU.
After seven months of laying the groundwork, Cyprus is due to begin substantive entry talks with the EU on November 10.
“We want to warn EU member states that such an application is not acceptable unless the Cyprus problem is solved first,” Reuters quoted Yilmaz as saying.
Turkey has been excluded from the 15-nation block’s expansion plans. Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash has set the cessation of Cyprus’s accession talks as one of his preconditions for a return to settlement negotiations stalled since Summer 1997.
According to yesterday’s Turkish Cypriot press, Denktash on Monday threatened that unspecified “measures” would be taken by the Turkish Cypriot side should the government’s talks with the EU begin as scheduled.
“The Turkish Cypriot stance on November 10 will not be the same as on November 9,” he said.
Yilmaz, on a one-day visit to the north, reiterated Turkey’s plans to push ahead with economic and political integration of the occupied areas with Turkey in response to Cyprus’s efforts to join the EU.
“Turkey will always be at the side of Turkish Cypriots,” the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) quoted Yilmaz as saying.
Welcoming Yilmaz, Denktash restated his position that there should be “two sovereign states” on the island.
Yilmaz echoed Denktash, stating the “two states” on the island had to be equal and calling on the Greek side to accept Denktash’s proposal for the establishment of a confederation of two states on the island.
The proposal, tabled in August, has been rejected by the government and the UN. The UN is working to re-start settlement talks on the basis of a bi- zonal federation.
Government spokesman Christos Stylianides described Yilmaz’s visit as “illegal and provocative” and called on the Turkish Prime Minister to “put pressure on Denktash to return to the negotiating table instead of making moves simply to impress.”
He added that Turkish threats “cannot make the EU change its position” on the November 10 talks.
The spokesman also commented on press reports that the occupation army was being reinforced with Chinese-made UUS-1 ground-to-ground missiles.
The reports, quoting government security sources, suggested the Turkish side might use the mobile UUS-1s, which have a range of 80km, to strike the recently opened Paphos air base and the S-300 missiles that the government has ordered from Russia, should they be deployed by the National Guard.
Though he did not directly confirm or deny the reports, Stylianides commented that any Turkish action to reinforce the 30,000-strong occupation army with more weaponry proved that Turkey was the aggressive party on the island.
The government has been criticised by the international community for ordering the S-300s, while Turkey has threatened a military strike against the long-range ground-to-air missiles should they arrive on the island.
“It is once again proved that Turkey, by bringing offensive weapons to occupied Cyprus is the superior power and the only power responsible for tension in the region,” Stylianides said.
Asked if he was confirming the Chinese missile reports, he said: “I do not completely confirm them as the Defence Ministry does not want to, but I will say that the possibility that exists for such movement of weapons systems proves the fact (of Turkey’s aggression).”
“The National Guard and Defence Ministry are in a position to know the situation concerning weapons in the north,” the spokesman added.
Tensions have risen on the island since the government’s announcement of the deal to bring the S-300s. In the face of mounting international pressure, delivery of the Russian-made missiles, originally due in the Summer, has been put off until later this year.
