GREEK PRIME Minister and outgoing EU president, Costas Simitis said yesterday that if Turkey wanted to join the EU a solution to the Cyprus problem must be reached in line with UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan’s plan
Simitis was speaking to journalists during a visit to the press centre at the EU summit in Thessalonica at the end of Greece’s stint in the six-month rotating presidency chair.
Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou, who was also at the press centre, said Turkey’s European prospects could be used to solve the Cyprus problem. “This is not a theoretical issue, this is a practical issue. You have Greece, which is a neighbour and has been helping Turkey, Turkey is a neighbour and you have Cyprus that is a neighbour. Cyprus is becoming a member of the EU. So all three countries will be part of the same family. So in this family we say these problems must be solved”, Papandreou said. “What we are trying to say is let us use the European prospect to help find a solution.”
President Tassos Papadopoulos who left for Thessalonica yesterday said the Greek Cypriot side was ready to resume the stalled negotiations without reservations or preconditions, whenever Annan would invites the two sides back to the table.
“We are ready, whenever we are asked by the UN Secretary-general, to come forward for dialogue based on the Annan plan, without any reservation, without any precondition,” he said on departure at Larnaca Airport..
Recent speculation has suggested the UN would invite the two sides to talks in September in New York and the US has admitted being in the throes of a new initiative on Cyprus. However, as State Coordinator Thomas Weston discovered during his visit this week, no talks are likely as long as Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash continued to insist that the Annan plan was dead and buried.
Weston, who blamed Denktash for the stalemate and said the Turkish Cypriot leader’s stance had hardened, arrived in Ankara on Wednesday for contacts with Turkish officials in an attempt to press forward with the US initiative.
Denktash also came under fire from the EU this week after rejecting trade measures offered by Enlargement Commissioner Gunter Verheugen to ease the plight of Turkish Cypriots. Verheugen went on to warn Turkey that it would not be allowed to use the Cyprus issue as a trade off to further its own EU aspirations.
An outraged Denktash was yesterday was quoted as saying he would never accept the conditions of the trade measures, which involve the use of legal Cyprus ports by Turkish Cypriot producers.
“If there is any exporter who wishes to do this we shall prevent him from doing so,” said Denktash, adding that if such a thing happened, it would lead to the gradual closure of the checkpoints, which he allowed to be opened on April 23.
Papadopoulos yesterday welcomed the strong stance the US and the EU had taken on Denktash’s position.
“Verheugen and Weston uttered nothing more than the truth and I am happy because I see they both agree with the line we follow,” he said.
