VARIOUS: Cyprus threatens veto of Turkey talks as Europena Union insists it's not closing doors on Ankara

Cyprus said on Thursday (November 30), it will block Turkey's European Union's entry negotiations if it is not satisfied with the EU's response to Ankara's refusal to open ports and airports to Cypriot traffic. Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos said on Thursday his government was not satisfied with an EU recommendation to partially suspend talks with Turkey over Ankara's refusal to open ports and airports to Cyprus. "We are not satisfied with decision, because we believe it does not offer any pressure towards turkey to adopt its responsibilities. And this is not helpful at all. Everyone wants to give a strong message to turkey. The message being given is not strong at all. Above all, there should be incentives, pressure if you like, which cannot exist without a time frame for reviewing the accession of turkey so that it will comply or face sanctions. What we will do obviously we will not announce now," Papadopoulos told Reuters. It said eight out of 35 negotiating areas, or chapters, would be put on hold until the Cyprus issue was resolved. Europe does not want to drive Turkey from the negotiating table, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Thursday, a day after Brussels recommended a partial freeze of Ankara's talks to join the bloc. "We don't close the door on Turkey not at all, we are in fact proposing to go ahead with our technical work. But we have to show that in fact Turkey is not fulfilling all its obligations. So there must be some consequence in overall process of negotiation this is the position of the European Commission taken yesterday in unanimity. I hope the member states will support it. Of course some would like to have more chapters suspended others would like to have less chapters suspended but we have done a very serious and objective work from an intellectual and political point of view," Barroso commented. Significantly for Ankara, the Commission, the EU's executive body, did not set a new deadline for Turkey to comply with its request. EU foreign ministers will discuss the proposal on Dec. 11. Cyprus said recently it would prefer no recommendation from the Commission on Turkey rather than a watered-down proposal. Turkey's EU accession process has ground to a virtual halt in recent months due to the issue of Cyprus, whose internationally recognised Greek Cypriot government is not recognised by Ankara. Turkey keeps about 35,000 troops in Cyprus's breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in the northern part of the island. It says it will only open its ports to the Greek Cypriots when the EU lifts trade restrictions against the Turkish Cypriots. Turkish newspaper headlines on Thursday were split between the EU decision and positive messages from Pope Benedict who is visiting the country. Political analyst Emre Gonenc said Turkey must not open its ports and airports to Cyprus unless the EU lifted the isolation of the northern half of the divided island. "So there is a balance there, Turkey cannot do a step forward and in the actual state of these things, on the other hand it became obvious that the European Union is not a dependable partner. So bilateral relations, relations within the NATO, within the United Nations, should be underlined and Turkey should pursue a very effective, I would say, even an aggressive policy," Gonenc told Reuters. The sectors to be frozen concern free movement of goods, the right to establish a business and freedom to provide services, financial services, agriculture, fisheries, transport policy, customs union and foreign relations. Commission sources said the list was based on legal advice on which chapters were relevant to the Cyprus issue but the number also reflected political reality in the member states. So far, Turkey has provisionally concluded just one chapter -- science and research -- since it began talks last year. Turkey invaded northern Cyprus in 1974 in response to a Greek Cypriot coup backed by Greece and it does not recognise Cyprus. Ankara is alone in recognising a breakaway Turkish Cypriot mini-state in the north of the island. Turkey has said it will open its ports to shipping from Cyprus only if the EU fulfils a pledge to end the isolation of Turkish Cypriot northern Cyprus, which the internationally recognised Greek Cypriot government in Nicosia has blocked. Turkish officials had expected only three or four chapters to be suspended but there was some comfort that Brussels did not seek a total freeze and set no new deadline to comply on Cyprus.

ITN Source | November 30, 2006

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