NICOSIA, 18 October 2005 — Turkish-Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat has received an invitation to talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington, his office said yesterday, in a move sure to annoy rival Greek-Cypriots. Only Turkey recognizes Talat’s breakaway, self-proclaimed “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” (TRNC), but both Washington and the European Union have been trying to end the decades-old economic isolation of the tiny enclave.
“He received an invitation and he has accepted. He will probably go to Washington on Oct. 28,” an official in Talat’s office told Reuters. The Turkish-Cypriot news agency TAK quoted Talat as welcoming the invitation. “Every step taken to hear and understand the Turkish Cypriot side is positive,” he was quoted as saying.
The international community regards the Greek-Cypriot government of Tassos Papadopoulos as the sole legal representative of the island of Cyprus. But the EU and the United States have praised the Turkish-Cypriots for backing a UN-sponsored plan in a referendum last year that aimed to reunite the Mediterranean island under a loose federal government.
The Greek-Cypriots rejected the plan, but a few days later joined the EU as the “Republic of Cyprus”. They have blocked EU efforts to ease trade restrictions against northern Cyprus, fearing this could lead to political recognition of the enclave.
“Turkish-Cypriots expect an end to their isolation after they displayed a strong will for a settlement in the 2004 referendum,” TAK quoted Talat as saying yesterday. The United States has already sent two delegations of Congressmen this year to northern Cyprus in a bid to help break down the Turkish-Cypriots’ isolation.
