By Martin Banks - 9th July 2008
The EU has been accused of reneging on promises to the Turkish-dominated north of Cyprus.
Speaking exclusively to this website, Ferdi Sabit Soyer, prime minister of the unrecognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, says Turkish Cypriots voted for a 2004 plan devised by then UN secretary general Kofi Annan on the “clear understanding” that trade and transportation barriers would be lifted in the event of a yes vote.
He said, “Since then nothing has happened, and these restrictions, which have caused untold damage to our economy in the north, have remained in place.
“I am calling on the EU to stand by its publicly stated intention to remove these unfair and unjust barriers immediately.”
Northern Cyprus depends on Turkey for more than two-thirds of its exports and its airport has virtually no flights to anywhere except Turkey.
The trade and travel restrictions, in particular, are believed to have severely hit the economy of the northern part of the island, while the south has prospered under EU membership.
In 2004, the 250,000-strong Turkish population of northern Cyprus overwhelmingly approved a peace plan devised by Kofi Annan, then secretary general of the UN.
In a parallel referendum, three-quarters of the Greek population of southern Cyprus, the internationally recognised country and EU member state, rejected the plan. The Greek Cypriot leadership wants negotiations on the future of the island to be based instead on a 2006 agreement signed by both sides.
Soyer’s statements come as Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat is due to meet with his Greek Cypriot counterpart this month to pick up ongoing talks on preparing the ground for fully fledged negotiations on reunification between the two sides.
Since March, both sides have set up working groups and technical committees to discuss how to move forward, and April saw the opening of the symbolic border crossing in Ledra Street in the capital, Nicosia, site of the contentious ‘green line’ that had effectively divided the island in two since the 1970s.
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