Cem blasts ’embargo’ on the north

THE TURKISH foreign minister yesterday said that every effort would be made to Alift the embargo@ against the north of Cyprus.

Speaking at a press conference in Nicosia after a six-hour visit to the occupied areas, Ismail Cem said the embargo was a “big injustice” and that Turkey raised the matter with “all the countries interested in the Cyprus problem”.

He said that “insistence on maintaining the inhuman embargo” did not comply with equality, and that “more attention should be given to equality”.

Cem was referring to a European Court ruling regulates the export of produce from the occupied areas of Cyprus.

He also accused the Greek Cypriot side of trying to “avoid proximity talks” and, said “the world has begun to listen to the government” in the occupied area.

Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash told the same news conference said that a confederal solution to the Cyprus problem would strengthen relations between Greece and Turkey.

Both the Cyprus government and the United Nations, however, have consistently rejected confederation as a solution. Such a settlement would be contrary to UN resolutions stipulating a bizonal, bicommunal federation.

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.