TRNC President Rauf Denktaþ yesterday received the Italian Ambassador to Lefkoþa, Gerardo La Francesca.

Speaking before his meeting with the Italian Ambassador, President Denktaþ has hailed the honourable struggle being waged jointly by the Turkish Cypriot people and motherland Turkey as a realistic and a practical one.

President Denktaþ said that the Turkish Cypriot people’s sovereignty is a reality, and that it will never be dependent on “how others see it”.

Continuing President Denktaþ stressed that “the struggle will continue until our sovereignty is accepted by others”.

Referring to a draft being debated by the European Parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee which stipulates that the Greek Cypriot administration will be admitted as an EU member irrespective of whether or not a solution is found to the Cyprus problem, President Denktaþ said the Turkish Cypriot side has long been working for a new partnership with the Greek Cypriot side, based on the two sides’ separate sovereignties, which will suit EU standards, and which will have a single identity.

Stressing that this formulation is difficult to reach because of the Greek Cypriot side’s continued presentation of itself as the sole government of Cyprus and its reluctance to respect the Turkish Cypriot people’s sovereignty, President Denktaþ said “a right is not a right without being based on sovereignty; and definitely nothing that can be torn apart and thrown into the dustbin”.

President Denktaþ repeated that the European Union’s assurances of membership given to the Greek Cypriot side have further encouraged the Greek Cypriots into believing that they do not need a settlement with the Turkish Cypriot side.

In response to the remarks by the Greek Prime Minister Kostas Simitis in which the Greek premier said his country is for a federal single-sovereignty system in which Turkish Cypriots’ sovereignty will not be accepted, President Denktaþ said it is nonsense to speak about “this right or that right” without first respecting the sovereignty right.

The President also warned that "whatever they keep telling us, and whatever right they keep promising to us, it is a fact that we shall not know under what title we shall be part of the EU" .

As to the Greek Prime Minister’s statement that the Cyprus negotiations should terminate by June, President Denktaþ said the correct approach on this issue is the one adopted by the UN Secretary General when Kofi Annan said progress could be expected by December.

President Denktaþ again underlined that it is wrong to try drawing a deadline for the negotiations to be completed on a problem which has lasted for almost 40 years now and added that no one can say the process is running too slow, as we are conducting two days of talks a week.

Within the framework of his yesterday’s programme, President Denktaþ, paid visit to the headquarters of the Association of Turkish Cypriot Peace Operation Veterans, which was recently opened.

Meanwhile, President Denktaþ will again meet with the leader of the Greek Cypriot Adminisatrtion Glafcos Clerides today at 10:00 within the framework of direct talks aimed at finding a lasting and just solution to the Cyprus issue which started on January 16, 2002.

The meeting will take place at the Lefkoþa Conference Centre in the Buffer Zone at the presence of the UN Secretary General’s Special Adviser on Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, who attends the meeting as an observer.

Today at 19:00, President Denktaþ will depart from TRNC for Ýstanbul, where he will be presented the award of “Successful Persons of 2001”.

The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’ Ambassador to Ankara, Ahmet Zeki Bulunç, participated in the conference in Erzurum organised by the Ankara University under the title of "Cyprus at a Crossroads".

Delivering a speech at the conference, Bulunç stated that the entry of Cyprus into the EU, would mean that Greece will achieve its sole aim of Enosis.

Bulunç said in the event of Turkey’s non-existence and if Turkey’s Peace Operation in 1974 had not been, there would not be a single Turk in Cyprus just as the Crete island today.

Bulunç has said the Cyprus problem has reached a cross-roads as a result of the recent developments on the Issue.

Ahmet Zeki Bulunç also underlined the need to explain the Cyprus cause to the Turkish people in the best way possible.

The ambulance aircraft FROM gERMANY, which arrived on the island in order to take the German patient Ulsver who is receiving treatment at the Lefkoþa Dr. Burhan Nalbantoðlu State Hospital since May 18, was prevented to land at TRNC Ercan State Airport by the Greek Cypriot Administration’s Aviation authorities.

Accordingly, the ambulance aircraft was compelled to land at Larnaka Airport in South Cyprus.