BERLIN, 10 January 2004 — Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday Turkey would do everything possible to help solve a long dispute over Cyprus by May 1, but the Greek Cypriot government said time was running out. Cyprus peace talks have been at a standstill for the past 10 months and time is short for negotiations on a complex United Nations blueprint before Cyprus joins the European Union on May 1, either united or divided.
“The Cyprus question must be solved by May 1. We will make the necessary steps in this regard,” Erdogan told a breakfast meeting of business leaders and politicians in Berlin. “There must be good will on both sides, if that is not the case then the problems will not be able to be solved. We will certainly show our goodwill,” he said through an interpreter.
A resolution of the Cyprus problem is seen as a precondition for Turkey’s membership of the EU and would boost its chances of starting accession talks in early 2005 - prospects being watched closely by Turkey’s financial markets.
Cypriot government spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides said Nicosia had taken note of Erdogan’s remarks but described them as yet another in a “series of statements”. “There is nothing concrete on the table. We hope Turkish political attitudes will change for negotiations to start as soon as possible,” he told Reuters.
Erdogan made his comments after US President George W. Bush sent him, Greek and Cypriot leaders a letter urging them to resume talks immediately. Erdogan has said he would discuss Cyprus when he meets Bush in Washington on Jan. 28.
While Erdogan’s remarks underlined Turkey’s commitment to a Cyprus solution, Turkish media have reported that the powerful military fears the government may be giving too much ground in its efforts to reach a settlement.
Senior Turkish government officials and military top brass on Thursday reaffirmed their commitment to a deal, but deferred further action to a meeting of the all-powerful National Security Council on Jan. 23.
Greek Cypriot Foreign Minister George Iakovou said even if Turkey decided to engage on the basis of the UN plan from Jan. 23, it still left little time ahead for negotiations. “This will restrict negotiation time to a couple of months - unless this is a tactical move by Turkey to push negotiations to the second half of the year and link it directly to progress on its own EU application,” Iakovou, speaking before Erdogan made his comments in Berlin, told Reuters in Nicosia.
Meanwhile, the European Commission welcomed yesterday Turkey’s extension of a ban on the death penalty to include times of war, which removed another obstacle to the country’s long-running bid to join the EU. The Turkish ambassador to the Council of Europe, the pan-European rights watchdog, signed yesterday protocol 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which obliges countries to abolish the death penalty in all circumstances, including times of conflict.
A spokesman for the EU’s executive arm, Jean-Christophe Filori, said “the Commission very warmly welcomes this initiative which is very good news for human rights in Turkey”.
The move “represents a further significant step for Turkey on its way to becoming a fully fledged democracy, fully respecting European standards for human rights”, he told reporters in Brussels. Turkey had already signed a protocol abolishing capital punishment in peacetime following a vote in its parliament in August 2002.
