Mayor of Cypriot 'ghost town' presses EU on Turkey membership

The mayor of the Cypriot “ghost town” of Famagusta has called on the EU to press for the removal of Turkish troops from the area.

Speaking in parliament on Wednesday, Alexis Galanos, a Greek Cypriot, said that negotiations on Turkish membership of the EU should be made conditional on such a move.

He said, “If Turkish troops are withdrawn, that would represent a step closer to finding a solution to the whole Cyprus problem.”

The coastal town, once one of the most modern and developed on the divided island, has been occupied by Turkish troops since the Turkish invasion in 1974. It is fenced off, empty and now widely known as a ghost town.

It is one of nine municipalities which have maintained their legal status but have been temporarily relocated to the government-controlled areas until the reunification of Cyprus.

The mayor and municipal council of these municipalities are elected by the refugees who used to live in them before 1974.

Galanos told a news conference that it has fallen into serious decay and is in urgent need of reconstruction.

“Rebuilding the town will require an architectural miracle and take many years,” he warned. “There is no running water and the buildings have been destroyed. It is an eerie place,” he said.

He said UN experts should be allowed entry to the town in order to establish the full scale of the rebuilding task.

He also said that members of both parliament’s petitions committee and the US Congress had been refused permission to visit Famagusta.

“It is totally unacceptable that it remains closed,” said Galanos, a former senior parliamentarian in southern Cyprus, who was elected mayor in December 2006.

He added, “As a gesture of goodwill Turkey could and should remove its troops from the town so that not only Greek Cypriots but Turkish Cypriots can move back there.”

During his visit to Brussels, he will meet representatives of Olli Rehn, the EU’s enlargement commissioner, as well as other EU officials and MEPs.

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