Having already obstructed the Turkish Cypriot side's representation in the European Parliament, in yesterday's (8 November) meeting of the European Council's Congress for Local and Regional Administrations the Greek Cypriot side again displayed its intention to usurp the rights of the Turkish Cypriots in the European Council and is preventing last year's decision to allocate one actual and one reserve seat to Turkish Cypriots from being implemented.

The Turkish Cypriot Municipalities Association and the Mayor of Beyarmudu Dr. Huseyin Beyar attended and addressed yesterday's session of the European Council's Congress for Local and Regional Administrations in Strasbourg where the Cyprus issue was also discussed.

In the address it was reiterated that the timetable for allocating one actual and one reserve seat to the Turkish Cypriot Local Administrators had been delayed and that by immediately implementing the timetable it was necessary to reduce the Greek Cypriot side's actual and reserve seats by one seat each.

Meanwhile, while Dr. Huseyin Beyar said that the Greek Cypriot side had usurped the rights of the Turkish Cypriots and was occupying all 6 seats allocated for Cyprus and requested a reduction in the number of Greek Cypriot seats, the Greek Cypriot side cited the incident in the European Parliament as an example and requested that there shouldn't be a reduction in the number of Greek Cypriot seats.

During the meeting the 'Cyprus Report' was approved and the rapporteurs stated that they supported Dr. Huseyin Beyar on the issue of implementing the decision taken by the European Council's Parliamentary Assembly and not the example of the European Parliament.

A decision on this issue is expected to be announced by the European Council's Bureau on 16 December.

The TRNC's New York Representative Resat Caglar stated that if the Greek Cypriot administration stopped claiming rights that were not granted to it by law this would contribute to a better atmosphere on the island.

Responding to a letter written to the UN Secretary-General by Andreas Mavroyiannis, the Greek Cypriot administration's Permanent Representative to the UN, alleging that "the Nicosia Flight Information Region (FIR) was being violated by Turkish Air Forces and that the national airspace of the 'Republic of Cyprus' was being violated, Caglar wrote a letter to the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and said these allegations were incorrect and purposely made.

In his letter, which was published as a UN document, Caglar stressed that flights carried out in the independent airspace of the TRNC were carried out with the knowledge and permission of the TRNC state and that the Greek Cypriot side had no authority to say anything about this matter. He underlined that the TRNC Civil Aviation Department was the only competent authority to control air traffic and arrange aviation information services, therefore Greek Cypriot claims that the Nicosia FIR was being violated were incorrect.

He said such allegations were constantly repeated by the Greek Cypriot administration's representatives and as long as the Turkish Cypriot people rejected to bow to these allegations, which were aimed at legalising an illegal administration in the South, they were pointless.