DONATION FROM TURKEY TO MISSING PERSONS COMMITTEE

            Turkey has donated 50 thousand US Dollars to the Autonomous Missing Persons Committee to be used in the Project of Exhumation and Identity Identification.

            Turkish Ambassador to Nicosia, Turkekul Kurttekin yesterday (8 February) submitted the check to President Mehmet Ali Talat. During the meeting, where the Missing Persons Committee’s Third Member Christophe Girod was also present, Ambassador Kurttekin stated that Turkey supported the studies of the Committee and the missing persons issue was not a political, but a humanitarian issue. He added that he hoped this donation, which was the last part of the total amount of donations, would help the studies of the Committee to be completed.

            President Talat speaking while receiving the check reiterated that the missing persons issue was totally humanitarian and thanked Turkey for her financial and moral contributions to the Committee.

            President Talat pointed out that they were doing their utmost to conclude the Project of Exhumation and Identity Identification.

            Meanwhile, according to the information given by the Missing Persons Committee’s Turkish Cypriot Member Gulden Plumer Kucuk, Turkey’s donations to the Committee up until today including the last donation is total of 190 thousand US Dollars. 50 thousand Dollars out of this was used for the studies of the DNA center and 90 thousand dollars for the studies of anthropology laboratory.

FAMAGUSTA PORT UNITED FORCES PLATFORM REACTS TO THE DETENTION OF UKRAINIAN CAPTAIN IN SOUTH CYPRUS

            Famagusta Port United Forces Platform strongly reacted to the detention and imprisonment for 45 days of the Ukrainian Captain in South Cyprus with the excuse that he entered to Famagusta port last year.

            The platform, which is formed of the Union of Turkish Cypriot Ship Agencies, Company of Port Workers, and Union of Turkish Cypriot International Transporters, issued a joint statement today, pointing out that the Ukrainian captain was arrested by the racist Greek Cypriot administration and subjected to imprisonment by its administered court.

            Evaluating the punishment of the Ukrainian captain as a racist action, the Platform stated that this incident was neither the first nor the last racist behaviour of the Greek Cypriot administration. Statement of the platform continues as follows:

“Moreover, although the captain before entering to Larnaka port had stopped at various other European ports, this implementation, as is understood, is only imposed by the Greek Cypriot powers with political aims.

We would like to underline that, we as the Turkish Cypriots who had shown patience for reaching a settlement until today, started to perceive these and other similar actions, which do not give us the right to exist and do not even want us to breath, as a cause of conflict.

In fact, the authority which would put an end to this kind of behaviour is the EU. It is the EU officials who have been saying that ‘isolation would end, direct trade would start” and giving us promises that have not been kept.

EU citizens, captains as well as thousands of Greek Cypriots are traveling by using our Kyrenia and Famagusta ports and Ercan Airport. However, third country citizens, besides being prevented from using their free movement rights, are being treated as potential criminals and bitterly subjected to heavy and derogatory punishments such as imprisonment, only because they have entered to our country.”

The statement stressing that especially the EU Term Presidency should immediately take radical decisions to start the direct trade, said:

“The EU should not fall for the tricks of the racist Greek Cypriot administration, which is trying to develop new methods for preventing the implementation of the direct trade and the free operation of TRNC ports.