PRESIDENT DENKTAS: “WE’LL PUT FORWARD OUR POSITION ACCORDING TO SECURITY COUNCIL DECISION”

Receiving the delegation of the Zonguldak Young Businessmen’s Association, headed by Bora Yalciner on April 12, President Denktas said that the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had explained that 6,000 pages of laws were missing from the document he had presented to the two sides, and it was impossible to put such an incomplete plan to a referendum, and added that a game had evidently been played. 

Pointing out that once a decision had been taken by the UN Security Council, the Turkish Cypriot side would put forward its position, President Denktas said in the event of the EU completing its mistake, which has been continuing up until today, of taking in Cyprus under the signature of the Greek Cypriot side into the EU on April 16, the Turkish Cypriot side by evaluating this decision will put forward the necessary stance.  

The President said: “We are the side who wants reconciliation; but not every kind of reconciliation. We were the co-founding partner of the 1960 Cyprus Republic, and we had equal rights with the Greek Cypriots. Since we were co-founding partners and will be a co-founding partner in the future, and since bi-zonality was accepted, and the principle of the existence of two states is being negotiated, these fundamental principles must be accepted so that in the future the agreement will not collapse again.”  

Reiterating that the Turkish Cypriot side is urging for a lasting agreement based on sovereignty, which they deserve, President Denktas said: “This was openly stated by themselves. With the Annan Plan, which was put in front of us, the doors are wide open for this game. Thus, there is no need to worry. It is not Cyprus who is applying. We are Northern Cyprus. However, if they have contact with us we could enter the EU in the future. We are saying ‘do not sign or allow to be signed the signature which will undermine the rights of the Turkish Cypriots’. We are at this point now”.  

CAGLAR: “FLIGHTS OVER TRNC AIRSPACE ARE WITH THE FULL KNOWLEDGE AND CONSENT OF THE TRNC…GREEK CYPRIOTS HAVE NO RIGHT OF SAY OVER THE ISSUE”

The TRNC’s New York Representative, Resat Caglar, in a letter written in response to the Greek Cypriot UN Representative’s letter published on March 19, said all flights within the sovereign airspace of the TRNC take place with the full knowledge and consent of the appropriate authorities of the State, over which the Greek Cypriot administration in South Cyprus has no jurisdiction or any right of say whatsoever.

Caglar’s letter was included as an annex in a letter dated 7 April 2003 from  Turkey’s UN Permanent Representative, Umit Pamir, to the United Nations  addressed to the Secretary General.  

In his letter Caglar underlined that allegations of so-called violations of the flight information region or violations of air traffic regulations are void and groundless under international law. He added that every precaution is being taken for the safety of navigation of civilian air traffic during the activities of Turkish state aircraft within international airspace, within which the civil aviation authority of the TRNC is the only competent authority to provide air traffic and aeronautical information services.