Athens calls Ankara to Cyprus talks

While Athens continues to support Turkey’s EU membership bid, it
also insists that Ankara should recognise EU-member Cyprus. Turkey,
however, remains reluctant to do so.

The leader of Greece believes that Turkey must recognise the
Cypriot government if it wants to secure a date for its EU
accession talks. “Turkey’s European course depends above all other
things on itself,” Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis has told
the Cypriot parliament. Karamanlis said that he has extended an
invitation to the government of Turkey for talks on the unresolved
Cyprus issue. 

In Ankara, the Foreign Ministry indicated that the
proposal was not to be taken seriously and said that  the
government had no plans to issue an official response. The
Commission likewise preferred to remain tight-lipped.

Earlier, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said that his
country had no obligation to recognise the Greek-Cypriot
administration.

In Nicosia, the Turkish Cypriot community’s leader, Rauf
Denktash, said that the Greek proposals were part of an “arrogant
move” to use Turkey’s EU bid to corner Ankara. ”The EU should now
decide that there are two separate peoples in Cyprus and nobody has
the authority to make one of these peoples government of the other.
And the EU should behave in line with this decision. Otherwise,
there will be no agreement in Cyprus,” said Denktash.

In a referendum in April 2004, the Greek community of Cyprus
voted down a UN-sponsored plan to resolve the Mediterranean
island’s 30-year-long division, while the Turkish Cypriots
overwhelmingly endorsed it. As a result, Greek Cypriots alone
joined the EU.

On 17 December, the leaders of the EU member states are
scheduled to decide on Turkey’s EU accession bid. Both Greece and
Cyprus have a veto right over the issue.

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Should the EU heads of state and government fail to reach a "satisfactory" decision on 17 December, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul says that Turkey would "leave it alone and go our own way".