THE DECISION by the Irish government to ban flights from Dublin ending up in occupied northern Cyprus sends a positive political message, Commerce, Industry and Tourism Minster Nicos Rolandis said yesterday.
Commenting on the development, news of which was published in the Sunday Mail, Rolandis said the actions of the Irish government on the issue set a precedent that other countries could adopt.
The flights from Dublin by Cyprus Turkish Airlines were due to begin on May 20 and had been preceded by a slick advertising campaign, which was threatening to dent the Cyprus Tourism Organisation’s (CTO’s) own push for Irish tourists this year.
But last week the Irish government said that approval of the flights to the unrecognised ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’ would have the country in breach of UN resolutions and could not be allowed to go ahead.
Other countries get around the problem of flights to the north by landing first in Turkey, then operating a separate flight to the occupied areas.
“Dublin’s decision is politically correct and it sends out to others a positive political message as far as the Cyprus question is concerned,” Rolandis said yesterday.
He said the occupation regime had sought to promote this request when its representatives went to Ireland to participate in a tourist exhibition.
“Ireland believes that it cannot accept this application because Dublin is well aware that the final destination of the flights in question is Cyprus’ occupied areas,” Rolandis said.
Rolandis said the decision could prompt many Irish tourists to think again and decide to spend their holidays in the government controlled part of the island instead.
“This decision could be a good precedent and others may follow suit,” the minister said, adding however that no other government had so far adopted such a policy.
In 2000, around 36,000 Irish tourists visited Cyprus, but last year some 51,000 spent their holidays on the island, a 43 per cent increase.
The Turkish Cypriot side has been pulling out all the stops to snag Irish tourists this year with a reduction in flight times, passport concessions and an advertising budget bigger than the CTO’s.
Slogan such as ‘The only high-rise in the north of Cyprus are the mountains’ and ‘Think you know Cyprus? Well you don’t know the half of it’, have been permeating Irish television, radio and newspapers in recent months.
To make travelling to the north even more attractive, the Turkish Cypriot side had eased passport restrictions and promised tourists that having a Republic of Cyprus or a Greek stamp on their passports would not be a problem and that they would be given ‘separate entry’ documentation.
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.
