PRIME MINISTER SOYER EVALUATES LATEST
DEVELOPMENTS ON CYPRUS ISSUE
SOYER: "CHIRAC'S STANCE IS IMPOSSIBLE TO UNDERSTAND"
Prime Minister Ferdi Sabit Soyer yesterday (10 August)
evaluated the latest developments on the Cyprus issue.
Reacting strongly to the note sent by the French
President Jacques Chirac to the Greek Cypriot Leader Tassos Papadopoulos
that unless Turkey recognized the "Republic of Cyprus" it could not start
accession negotiations with the EU, Prime Minister Soyer said Chirac's
stance was impossible to understand and had given the wrong message which
in turn would have a direct effect on settling the Cyprus issue.
Pointing out that France's stance was anti-democratic,
the Prime Minister called upon Paris to give up this stance and said:
"The main point of this message and France's political
stance is that Turkey's EU membership process is linked to and dependent
on Turkey recognizing the Papadopoulos administration, who has usurped the
'Republic of Cyprus', as being the sole government of the whole 'Republic
of Cyprus'. This is a very wrong message and we expect France, who is
thought of as being the cradle of democracy in Western democracies, to
give up this anti-democratic stance and oppressive attitude, which it is
trying to impose on the Turkish Cypriot people".
Additionally, the Prime Minister stated that the Greek
Cypriot side's aim was to settle the Cyprus issue on the basis of a
unitary state and under today's structure of the 'Republic of Cyprus' that
it usurped in 1964.
Indicating that Papadopoulos' rejection of President
Talat's invitation to meet socially meant rejecting the Turkish Cypriot
people, the Prime Minister said: "A political leadership which does not
have the courage and democratic values to accept a meeting with the
elected leader of a people has no place within the principles of the EU".
Referring to the statement made by Kipros Hrisostomidis,
the Spokesman of the Greek Cypriot administration, to the effect that the
policy envisaging the destruction of the Republic of Cyprus and the
establishment of a new state should be given up, Prime Minister Soyer said
Hrisostomidis' statement clearly highlighted that the dominating mentality
was in the minds and hearts of all Greek Cypriots and that the Greek
Cypriot side's stance was contrary to all the UN efforts, the 1977-79 High
Level Agreements, the Annan Plan, and all decisions and political
practices taken by the EU on the Cyprus issue.
