EUROPEAN UNION Enlargement Commissioner Gunter Verheugen said the proposed package of measures to end Turkish Cypriot economic isolation would in no way lead to direct or indirect recognition of the north.
Speaking at a televised news conference in Brussels yesterday, Verheugen said measures were designed to contribute to a solution of the Cyprus problem and to bring about reunification.
“We believe strongly that as a precondition for a solution it would be useful to eliminate the very strong economic disparities between the south and the north”, Verheugen said.
He said Turkish Cypriots understood that their positive attitude towards the UN reunification plan was recognised.
“What is not recognised, of course, is the statehood of their entity and nobody has the intention, directly or indirectly, to recognise the ‘Turkish Republic of North Cyprus,” he said. “We have certainly not the slightest interest to see a Turkish mini-state in the eastern Mediterranean. It would make things only complicated, nobody supports that,” he added.
“There is no risk that the measures that we have adopted today, would lead directly or indirectly to a kind of recognition.”
Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat said he saw the direct trade proposal as an “important step” towards ending the isolation of the north, adding that it gave the Turkish Cypriot “a kind of membership of the customs union”
The north’s economy ‘minister’ Ayse Donmezer said it was “too early to give a detailed response” to the package, but added that “at first glance it looked positive”.
Verheugen said that the Commission had to take into account that without an end to their economic isolation, the majority of Turkish Cypriots would leave the island and that “at the end of the day, we would not have Turkish Cypriots but we would have only Turkish settlers there,” he said adding that the pro-European forces in the north needed support.
“And they deserve it,” he said.
“We want to improve infrastructure in the area of electricity, telecommunication, and support the harmonisation with the acquis communautaire, alignment with the EU legislation.”
Verheugen said the measures should be seen as a signal to encourage Turkish Cypriots and to tell them that the future of a united Cyprus has to be within the EU.
