Yesterday (7 September) the Greek Cypriot administration didn't allow a lorry belonging to the Estonian Allante Transport company and carrying lighting equipment for the Cyprus Telecommunication Office (CYTA), which arrived at Kyrenia Port, to cross over to the South from the Metehan crossing point in Nicosia.

The lorry arrived at Kyrenia Port and because the contents of the lorry were for South Cyprus no duties were charged and accompanied by a Turkish Cypriot Customs Control Officer the lorry was taken to the Metehan crossing point.

Completing the crossing procedures in the TRNC at 13:20, the lorry was stopped at the Greek Cypriot control gate and despite trying for almost one hour to cross over to the South the driver Andrus Annsoo was not allowed to cross over to the South. Accompanied by a Customs Control Officer Annsoo was taken back to the Kyrenia Customs Directorate.

Explaining that the equipment for CYTA was bought from Estonia and that 3 lorries had set off for Limassol, Annsoo said the other 2 lorries followed the Athens-Rhodes-Limassol route, but he drove to Cyprus via Turkey because it was cheaper. Pointing out that his Greek Cypriot friend had told him that since he was an EU citizen and Cyprus was EU territory there wouldn't be any problem, Annsoo said despite talking to his Greek Cypriot friend on the telephone the Greek Cypriot administration insisted that he had entered the country through "an illegal port" and didn't allow him to cross over to the South.

In a letter written to the Washington Times the TRNC's Washington Representative Osman Ertug stated that the Turkish Cypriots did not leave the 'Republic of Cyprus', but were thrown out.

Responding to an article published in the same daily which claimed that the Turkish Cypriots had left the 'Republic of Cyprus', Ertug said these allegations did not reflect the realities and referring to the 'Turkish Cypriot state' as the region that separated only served to encourage Greek Cypriot intransigence and didn't increase hopes for a settlement.

Pointing out that the Turkish Cypriot partner was forcefully ousted from the Republic in order to annex the island to Greece, Ertug said the Cyprus problem wasn't as a result of the Turkish Cypriots leaving, but because of the Greek Cypriot peoples' usurptionist stance.

Highlighting that in the 24 April 2004 referendum while an overwhelming majority of Turkish Cypriots voted in favour of unification the majority of Greek Cypriots rejected this, Ertug said it was the Greek Cypriot side who was preventing all initiatives aimed at uniting the island. He said in order to dominate the whole island the Greek Cypriot side was trying to degrade the status of the Turkish Cypriots from an equal partner to a minority.

In a letter written to the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the TRNC's New York Representative Resat Caglar stated that Greek Cypriot allegations that Turkish planes were violating the Nicosia Flight Information Region (FIR) were incorrect.

In his letter, which was published as a UN document, Caglar pointing out that the flights were carried out within TRNC airspace and with the permission of the state, said the authority in South Cyprus had no right to interfere in this.