By Alex Mita
GOVERNMENT Spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides said yesterday some of the support measures announced last week to help Turkish Cypriots had been implemented.
Speaking to the Cyprus Mail yesterday, Chrysostomides said the establishment of telecommunications, the issuing of birth certificates and passports and the registration of Turkish Cypriots with the Social Services were already under way.
Chrysostomides said reactions from the Turkish Cypriot opposition showed the measures were to be accepted.
The Turkish-Cypriot media were sceptical about the measures announced by the government last week, while Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash insisted they where an effort by the Greek Cypriots to overshadow his initiative to allow free movement to and from the occupied areas.
According to Kibris, the main Turkish Cypriot parties were reserved in their first reactions.
The leader of the Republican Turkish Party (RTP) Mehmet Ali Talat has said that at first the measures seemed worth considering but they soon discovered that they fell short of their expectations.
“We as Turkish Cypriots expect there will be openings that will confirm our equal partnership rights and that will integrate us with the world,” he said. “Within this framework, we are ready to consider and evaluate every proposal that aims at the rapprochement of the two communities.”
Speaking soon after his return from Turkey where he gave a series of lectures, Denktash said the mainland Turkish people urged him not to turn Cyprus into Crete and to respect the remains of those Turks who died on the island during the invasion.
Denktash will discuss the measures with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan who is expected to visit the north for one day on May 9.
Commerce and Industry Minister George Lillikas said the support measures announced by the government are within the law and the EU acquis communautaire and are based on the equal treatment of Greek and Turkish Cypriots but stressed the government would not allow trade of illegally imported goods from the north.
Communications Minister Kikis Kazamias said telecommunications with the north and Turkey had been restored and that CyTA had been given the go-ahead to discuss ways of working together with Turkish companies to link up mobile phone networks.
The movement of Turkish Cypriot cars to the free areas will not be possible until May 10 to give the House time to approve a relevant law.
Kazamias said cars from the north would be temporarily registered to the Republic and insurance companies in the south would be allowed cover them for one day.
Labour Minister Makis Keravnos said some Turkish Cypriots had already registered at the Department of Social Insurance to find work in the south.
Keravnos said all the necessary steps where being taken to aid Turkish Cypriots into finding jobs in the republic.
Chrysostomides said no date had been set for removing mines from the cease-fire line but that President Tassos Papadopoulos has insisted that all mines be removed despite Denktash’s refusal to do the same.
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.
