OFFICIAL representations have been made by the government to the US embassy and the British High Commission over their attendance at a reception at the Turkish embassy in the north last Friday.
Government spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides said all the necessary steps were taken to protest the attendance of British High Commissioner Lyn Parker and US embassy senior official Ned Nolan.
Chrysostomides said the two diplomats had violated UN Security Council resolution 550, which calls on member states to avoid taking action that would recognise directly or otherwise the Turkish Cypriot breakaway administration in the north, by attending the reception, despite strong objections from the Cyprus government.
The spokesman said the government had taken preventative steps with both embassies, and when asked whether these demarches had been ignored, he said “It appears so, yes”.
“The government considers that their presence at the reception constitutes an infringement of Security Council resolutions 541 and 550 which prohibits any assistance to the occupied areas or any diplomatic action that would encourage this state of affairs,” he said.
“The presence of the ambassador in the occupied areas constitutes a clear illegality, which is condemned specifically by resolution 550.”
British High Commission spokesman Nigel Boud said yesterday that Parker’s attendance at the reception had nothing to do with the recognition of the breakaway regime and that it was not the first time embassy officials had attended Turkish national Day celebrations.
“It’s important we talk to everyone and it was a good opportunity to meet and speak with the Turkish Cypriots,” he said. “This is nothing new. It’s something we have been doing for a long time.”
Boud said despite attendance at the reception for a number of years, last year was the first time it had elicited rumblings from the government of President Tassos Papadopoulos, which came to power in early 2003.
Papadopoulos has been at loggerheads with the British and American government’s since the advent of the Annan plan and its rejection at referendum in April, accusing them of interfering in the island’s internal affairs and trying to influence through bribery, the outcome of the referendum.
Also, immediately after Greek Cypriot ‘no’ in April, EU Enlargement Commissioner Gunter Verheugen accused Cyprus of cheating its way into the EU by giving the impression that it would not block a solution based on the Annan plan.
Since then the international community has said it would not launch a new initiative unless the Greek Cypriot side spells out what it wants.
Former President Glafcos Clerides, who began negotiations on the plan before Papadopoulos came to power, warned on Monday that Cyprus had lost its credibility with the international community.
He was speaking on Monday night at the launch of a book Cyprus-European Union: From the First Steps to Accession, by another former President, George Vassiliou, who was later appointed as the island’s chief negotiator with the EU.
In his address Clerides said the long journey which Cyprus travelled to Europe, taught that the credibility of the Greek Cypriot within the bloc lay in its position on the Cyprus problem. This credibility was the basis on which the best possible solution to the Cyprus problem could be found, he said.
“Now unfortunately things are different,” Clerides said. “We need a specific strategy and reinforced persuasiveness so that the road to put the Cyprus problem back on the agenda, is re-opened,” he added.
