In a press conference yesterday (20 September) morning President Mehmet Ali Talat answered reporters questions and pointing out that by using its EU membership the Greek Cypriot side was trying to change the ground for the Cyprus problem and take it outside of the UN parameters, said the text produced by the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the EU (COREPER) was not good from the Turkish Cypriot side's point of view.

Indicating that the COREPER text was pressuring Turkey to recognize Cyprus' current structure and aimed at only lifting the restrictions in favour of the Greek Cypriot side, President Talat said this wasn't a European approach and through this approach the EU had identified a policy that was preventing a Cyprus settlement and that this was extremely worrying.

Continuing, the President said the Greek Cypriot administration's stance in the COREPER meeting was aimed at excluding the UN and the reason why the COREPER draft had been rejected up until today was because it didn't refer to the UN.

Stating that: "As long as the Greek Cypriot administration's stance continues, I don't think the UN will take on a new initiative", President Talat said although the UN did want to take an initiative, he didn't think the UN Secretary-General would be willing to do this due to the Greek Cypriot administration's stance. He also reminded that the UN Secretary-General had previously stated that he didn't want to get involved in another adventure that had no chance of success.

Calling upon the Greek Cypriot administration to take measures to open up a Turkish Cypriot school, under the same conditions as the Greek Cypriot school in Karpaz, President Talat said otherwise the issue would be taken to international platforms. He said he expected the same good will from the Greek Cypriot side.

Referring to the opening of a Turkish Cypriot school in Limasol, the President said the opening of a Greek Cypriot school in the North stemmed from the 3^Rd Vienna Agreement which envisaged that there be sufficient opportunities to meet the education needs of Greek Cypriots and Maronites living in the North. Explaining that according to this agreement there were no arrangements to suggest that a school was under merely Greek Cypriot administration President Talat said while the school or class could have been connected to the TRNC Ministry for National Education and Culture, in line with the Turkish Cypriot side's good will an opportunity was provided for a Greek Cypriot school, exempt from being supervised and affected by the North, to be opened in the North.

In a press conference organized in Brussels following the opening of the TRNC Chamber of Commerce's representative office, Prime Minister Soyer said in the draft declaration that was agreed by the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the EU (COREPER) on September 19 and expected to be approved yesterday (20 September), the point regarding the recognition of the Greek Cypriot administration was unacceptable for the Turkish Cypriots.

Indicating that if Turkey was to open its ports to the Greek Cypriot administration this should be done simultaneously with the lifting of the isolations imposed on the TRNC, the Prime Minister evaluated the reference made to the UN negotiation process as being positive.

Highlighting that the declaration signalled that the issue of Turkey opening its ports to the Greek Cypriot administration would again be taken up in 2006, Prime Minister Soyer said: "Restrictions should be lifted simultaneously. In other words, when Turkey opens her ports to Greek Cypriot ships, the ports of Famagusta and Ercan should also be opened. The path to achieving this stems from implementing the financial aid and direct trade regulations prepared by the EU".

In order to attend the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) Foreign Ministers Meeting, as well as have bilateral contacts the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Serdar Denktas is currently in New York.

Within the framework of his contacts, Serdar Denktas met with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul, as well as the Head of the UN Development Programme Kemal Dervis, the OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the Foreign Minister of Pakistan Makhdum Bakhtyar, and the Foreign Minister of Sierra Leone Momodu Korama.

Commenting on the latest developments in the COREPER meeting, Serdar Denktas, pointing out that the declaration prepared by the EU and member countries was prepared by taking into consideration that everything was progressing as normal in Cyprus, said if everything was normal in Cyprus there would be a settlement, isolations wouldn't be imposed on one part of the island, and there'd be no mention of the existence of an administration which the Turkish Cypriots didn't vote for. He said as long as the abnormal situation in Cyprus continued and the EU continued to act as if everything was normal, this would further encourage the Greek Cypriot side's intransigence, and as recently stated by Papadopoulos that the Cyprus problem would be settled through 'Osmosis' (slowly extending Greek Cypriot sovereignty to the North), this demonstrated the kind of settlement desired by Greek Cypriots and Greece.

Continuing, Serdar Denktas said this approach was being ignored by the EU and while in its own declaration the EU had stated that, "as the EU we do not accept discrimination", in fact it was adopting discriminatory policies against the Turkish Cypriots. He stressed that for years the EU was trying to lift the restrictions between the Greek Cypriot administration and Turkey, but by not engaging in any efforts to try and lift the years-long practices imposed on the Turkish Cypriots, the EU was in fact implementing a policy of discrimination.