Package is a ‘reward for ‘yes’ vote’
THE U.S. is set to give the Turkish Cypriots $30 million this year to ease the economic isolation in the north, reports from Washington said yesterday.
“We’ve worked up a package designed to ease the economic isolation and keep the idea of a settlement alive,” a senior State Department official told Reuters.
The money comes within days of the European Commission’s proposal for a package of measures that includes financial aid of 259 million euros, plus regulations for internal trade and also for direct trade, which the government opposes.
According to Reuters, the US money will be handed over to the north in the next few months, and is part of Washington’s pledge to help Turkish Cypriots after they voted ‘yes’ to the Annan plan.
“With this money, Washington is helping meet the Turkish Cypriots’ immediate needs,” said Bulent Aliriza, a specialist on Cyprus and Turkey at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington.
“It also sends a clear signal that Washington wants to help the economic disparity on the island for their support for reunification,” he said.
The Bush administration proposed to Congress that the aid come from funds that have already been approved for other projects but have not been used. Congress had until Thursday to reject that proposal.
“The administration’s proposal is approved,” said John Scofield, spokesman for the US House of Representatives Appropriations Committee.
Reports in the Turkish press yesterday said that the World Bank was also preparing to provide financial and technical aid to the Turkish Cypriots. The bank is reportedly waiting for the EU to approve its package.
The US State Department has welcomed the measures. State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said that the US looked forward to the measures being implemented, particularly with regard to direct trade from the northern Turkish-occupied part of Cyprus, ”because that can help support the eventual reunification of the island”.
”We have been coordinating with the EU and we continue our review of a full range of policies and programmes consistent with what the EU is doing and in cooperation and coordination with them” Boucher said during his regular briefing.
In Brussels, spokesman Jean-Christophe Filori said the EU proposals would help to create a positive climate for the reunification of island. Filori said discussions on ‘direct’ and ‘indirect’ recognition of the north should stop and that it should be about helping end the economic isolation of the Turkish Cypriots so that reunification can be brought about.
Government spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides said yesterday Cyprus was attempting the reach the best possible compromise with the EU on the basis of its own proposals.
Chrysostomides has said there was disagreement between the government and the Commission on the issue of direct trade.
”The government is determined to give a political and a legal battle to avoid solutions that are politically wrong and legally useless,” he said.
He repeated that the government did not wish to take the Commission to the Court of Justice of the European Communities on this issue but added that it could use all normal means at its disposal.
The spokesman said that the Commission had already appointed an ad hoc committee which began yesterday discussing the measures and the technical and legal problems arising from the proposed measures.
He said that the discussion on the regulation on direct trade would take place in Autumn, something which offers time to examine the Green Line rules on inter-island trade.
But Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce president Ali Erel rejected statements by the government that the EU’s package aimed at allowing direct trade between north Cyprus and the EU would reinforce partition of the island.
“The package is a vehicle for a solution of the Cyprus problem, not for cementing partition,” Erel said in an interview with Turkish Cypriot daily Kibrisli.
He added that although the package did not go all the way to satisfying the wishes of those in the north who voted yes to the Annan plan, it went a long way towards ending the economic hardship of Turkish Cypriots.
Erel was keen to emphasise the Turkish Cypriot side’s commitment to eventually reaching a settlement of the Cyprus problem and sought to quell Greek Cypriot fears that the new EU measures would add fuel to the separatist movement in the north.
“This package was designed as a temporary measure in lieu of a real settlement of the Cyprus problem. When that real solution comes there will be no need for special status and separate agreements. All will be done under the legal umbrella of the EU”.
He added that even if the Annan plan had been accepted both sides of the Green Line there would have been a delay in the implementation of the acquis communautaire.
“Even then there would have been a transitional period during which the north’s economy would been boosted for it to be able to compete and ultimately integrate with the south’s”.
However, Erel insisted the north should not now rest on its laurels and assume that the EU package alone would end the economic isolation of the north.
“Unless we utilise this package in the way it is intended, it will be of now benefit to us,” he said, adding: “a community that had been isolated for 40 years can not, in a mere matter of days be in a position to compete with countries of the EU”.
“We have a lot that we have to do ourselves. Our harbours, airports and laboratories that give health certificates have to be brought up to EU standards,” he said, adding that financial aid from the EU would be necessary for improvements to take place.
“I’m sure that even with the 259 million euros from the EU it will be a great struggle”.
Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash warned yesterday that the EU package was a trap aimed at fusing the Turkish Cypriots with Greek Cypriots, whom the EU was accepting as the legal representative of Turkish Cypriots.
Denktash said the EU was acting as if the ‘TRNC’ did not exist saying the measures did not recommend recognition. “The price of these measures is the abandonment of sovereignty and state ”.
