THE OPENING of the Limnitis crossing on Thursday was almost scuppered when it emerged that the Turkish ‘ambassador’ in the breakaway north could be attending the ceremony.
When we arrived “at Limnitis the first thing we heard when the door opened was that there was a possibility of last-minute problems,” Androulla Kaminara, the Head of the EU Representation in Cyprus told state radio. The opening was not a given, she said.
According to government sources, as soon as the Republic was informed about the possibility of the Turkish ‘ambassador’ in the breakaway north of the island attending the opening ceremony, it told the United Nations it would not be accepted.
Reports said the Turkish Cypriot side reacted by not accepting the presence of EU and UN Security Council ambassadors attending the opening.
Government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou yesterday referred queries about those reports to the UN who were responsible for organising the ceremony.
“From then on you realise that the Republic of Cyprus cannot accept the fact that there is a so-called Turkish ambassador in the occupied areas, in Cyprus, for the simple reason that the occupation is pointed out and highlighted in UN resolutions,” Stefanou said.
“The UN also takes a clear stance with its resolutions on the issue of the Turkish republic of northern Cyprus. It is Turkey’s illegal action, condemned by the international community and through its resolutions the international organisation urges all countries not to recognise this illegal formation.”
Kaminara said the UN had sent invitations to the EU ambassadors but then there was a request for ambassadors not to attend so there would be no problem with the opening.
In the end they did not attend.
“They showed a lot of goodwill so there would not be any problem,” Kaminara said.
The UN could not immediately confirm.
A UN spokesman said it had been “decided by the event organisers that the ceremony would be attended by the representatives of the two key financial contributors to the project — European commission and US government – and the leaders of the two communities who have been committed to this crossing point opening as they demonstrated themselves very clearly yesterday (Thursday).”
The Limnitis crossing, in the far north-west of the island, became the seventh crossing in the buffer zone since the first one opened in April 2003.
