Turkey rejects opening ports to Greek Cyprus

Turkey will not open its ports and airspace to Greek Cyprus until there is an agreement that would reunite the divided island, the Turkish foreign minister said Thursday.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu was responding to a renewed call by the European Union for an agreement on the issue, which is one of the reasons that talks for closer ties between Turkey and the EU are frozen.

Cyprus was divided into a Greek Cypriot south and a Turkish Cypriot north in 1974 when Turkey intervened in response to a coup by supporters of union with Greece.

The Greek-speaking half is internationally recognized and entered the EU in 2004. The breakaway Turkish north is recognized by Turkey, which also retains 35,000 troops in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt renewed the EU's call during his visit aimed at discussing the country's stalled EU membership bid. Sweden currently holds the EU presidency.

Turkey began talks to join the 27-nation bloc in 2005, but has made little progress since. France and Germany have expressed opposition to its bid while negotiations over some policy areas such as energy talks are frozen over Turkey's refusal to allow ships and planes from Greek Cyprus to enter its ports and airspace.

Spain expressed support for Turkey's membership on Thursday, promising that more negotiation chapters could be opened when that country takes over the EU's rotating presidency in January.
 

Hurriyet

27.11.2009