THE EUROPEAN Parliament yesterday issued a clear warning to Ankara that it could forget its European Union bid if it went ahead and annexed the occupied areas if a divided Cyprus joined the EU.
Euro MPs adopted a report drawn up by former Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jacques Poos, which warned Turkey’s application for EU membership would come to an end if the north was ever annexed.
On Tuesday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry had denied ever threatening to annex the north, accusing Poos of harbouring a personal grudge against Ankara.
However, the Chairman of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Elmar Brok, lashed out against the “intolerable attacks” from Turkey.
“We as the European Parliament cannot accept this type of personal attack,” Brok told a news conference.
The tough message was adopted despite pleas from Enlargement Commissioner Gunter Verheugen for the Parliament to support diplomatic efforts to unite Cyprus within the framework of Greco-Turkish rapprochement.
Government Spokesman Michalis Papapetrou said yesterday the Parliament’s decision was “the minimum” to be expected from “an international organisation with any respect”.
“I think that all diplomats should be convinced by now that the only way out is for Mr Denktash and the Turkish side to receive a very determined message from the international community,” he added.
Diplomats have been working round the clock to persuade Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash to return to the UN sponsored proximity talks in New York in September.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan invited Denktash and President Glafcos Clerides to pre-negotiation meetings in New York on September 12, but the Turkish Cypriot side yesterday refused to go.
He said diplomatic efforts had come to nothing in the last quarter of a century.
The Poos report lambasted Turkey for a catalogue of crimes in Cyprus.
It “deplores” Denktash’s “unjustified” withdrawal from talks and said the current impasse was delaying the solution of humanitarian problems.
It criticised Turkey for failing to pay compensation in the Titina Loizidou case and referred to the European Court of Human Rights’ ruling on May 10 that Turkey was guilty of major human rights violations in northern Cyprus.
Poos urged Denktash to return to negotiations and called on Turkey to wake up to the benefits of EU membership.
The report also called on the government to safeguard the future of the Akamas peninsula as a protected area.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
