DIRECT flights to the north of the island are unlikely to happen, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) said yesterday, putting paid to Turkish Cypriot aspirations that the international community would defy the Cyprus government on the issue.
According to reports from the Athens News Agency (ANA), Assad Kotaite, chairman of the ICAO council, said his organisation only dealt with the internationally recognised government of Cyprus.
Kotaite was responding to questions after a meeting in Athens with Greek Foreign Minister Petros Molyviatis.
“We recognise and discuss only with the legal government of Cyprus,” he said.
The comment puts an end to months of speculation that the international community was considering allowing direct flights to the north of the island in the wake of the Turkish Cypriot ‘yes’ vote on the Annan plan in April’s referendum.
Although the EU has put together a package of measures to end the isolation of the Turkish Cypriots, which includes direct trade with the bloc, the issue of the legal status of the airports and ports are matters for the ICAO and the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) respectively. Both organisations deal with the Cyprus government.
The ports and airports in the north have been closed to international shipping and aviation traffic since 1974.
The US in particular was believed to be pressing for direct flights into the north in the wake of the EU’s trade proposals.
Reports yesterday said that the US had sent a letter to the ICAO asking for the opening of airports in the north, but a State Department spokesman said he was not aware of such a move.
“We are not aware of such a letter and would refer you to the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration); so I don’t know about any letter to the ICAO,” State Department Deputy Spokesman Adam Ereli said.
Concerning the issue of direct flights to the occupied north, Ereli avoided giving a direct answer, merely referring to US support for the UN Secretary-general’s recommendation in his Good Offices Mission to Cyprus, “that members of the Security Council should co-operate both bilaterally and in international bodies to eliminate barriers that have the effect of isolating Turkish Cypriots and impeding developments.”
“Our goal is to help ease their isolation,” Ereli said without elaborating.
He said the US, in co-ordination with the EU, was examining all policies, including aviation, in line with that goal. “That is the official State Department position on this issue,” he said.
Ereli said that looking into ways to ease the isolation, including aviation, did not mean the US planned to allow the opening of airports, or recognising airports that were not under the control of the internationally recognised government of Cyprus.
He said he had no idea personally of when the US would carry out this examination into the relevant policies. “We haven’t decided,” said Ereli.
Foreign Minister George Iacovou said he had no information concerning a US letter.
He added: “Cyprus’ permanent secretary at ICAO visited the organisation recently and spoke with the chairman and many other officials; he looked into the issue and it is inaccurate.”
Iacovou said the US would not have opted to send a letter to ICAO because they had many other ways to do so.
Asked about American insistence on direct flights to the north, Iacovou stressed that the US had not taken any measure towards implementing such a decision but were talking about lifting the Turkish Cypriots’ isolation in general.
“The Americans know well that it would be very difficult to start direct flights; we have been trying to bring American tourists (to Cyprus) for years and we only managed to bring 300 every year, and that includes American Cypriots,” the minister said.
Iacovou said he knew “what the Treaty of Chicago said, what the ICAO and the Eurocontrol rules said, and it’s these things that the US superpower is obliged to accept”.
