MEHMET Ali Talat yesterday took a less than diplomatic swipe at the Cypriot government and the EU – stopping short of accusing the EU of outright discrimination against Turkish Cypriots – insinuating he would not like to draw parallels with Nazis and Crusaders.
In his message to Turkish Cypriots to mark the 23rd anniversary of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) that established the ‘TRNC’, Talat said EU “discriminatory treatment”, of Turkish Cypriots today was something inconceivable.
Talat said the EU was embracing the current Greek Cypriot leadership, “which has acted as the lawyer, the financial consultant and psychological supporter of Milosevic, who slaughtered his people of Bosnian and Albanian origin in the middle of Europe and before the eyes of the EU”.
Greek Cypriots also ordered the genocide of Turkish Cypriots in 1963, he said.
“What message is the EU giving to the world by opening its arms to this leadership while excluding the Turkish Cypriots? – That Europe is approaching the Turkish Cypriots with such a discrimination, cultural racism and religious hostility that resembles the mentality of the Crusaders and Nazis?” said Talat.
“We prefer to erase this thought from our minds and to commit ourselves to the European ideal which sees different cultures, religions and societies as a richness. The assurance of such a European ideal in Cyprus is definitely the Turkish Cypriots, and not the Greek Cypriots, who, in the 21st century, still pursue a policy of hatred, racism and discrimination. “
Talat called on all Turkish Cypriots to work towards building a European country. “We are a people. We are a people in Europe. Sooner or later, the Turkish Cypriots will take their place in the European Union. Today, our mission is to prepare the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, with all its institutions, for this inevitable prospect,” he added.
Referring to the Cyprus issue, the Turkish Cypriot leader said the island was standing on the verge of new political developments, which had come about with “the attempts of the European Union to become a factor in the solution of the Cyprus problem” alongside the UN and the guarantor states, Turkey and Greece.
“The Greek Cypriot leadership, which is trying to use Turkey’s EU membership negotiations as a means of imposing its “osmosis” policy upon the Turkish side, has come to the end of the game.
“Soon it will be even clearer that nothing can be attained through such cheap bargains and blackmailing, which are completely incompatible with European values,” Talat said. “We will soon enter a period where all the sides of the Cyprus problem will be rethinking their positions and producing more balanced, rational and reconciliatory policies.”
He said the ‘TRNC’ would become one of the principal pillars of a united federal Cyprus under the roof of the EU and that the Turkish Cypriots, by establishing and advancing the ‘TRNC’ had made it clear to the world that they want to govern themselves rather than becoming “the local or secondary extension of an external authority”.
When the ‘TRNC’ was declared in 1983, Talat said the will to live together with the Greek Cypriots in peace was “clearly declared to the world on those days”.
“The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was established not to cement division on the island, but on the contrary, with the aim of creating the favourable conditions in preparation of a united, federal republic in compliance with the will of the United Nations and the international community,” said Talat.
“I would particularly like to underline that in the social psychology and political choice of the Turkish Cypriots, who voted by 65 per cent to unify the island, the will to have a “constituent state” and ruling themselves, and the will to unify the island, do not contradict with each other. The Turkish Cypriot people do not keep separate the will to govern themselves and the will to create a unified Cyprus with European values.”
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