Cyprus Mail: Press Review in English, 99-11-25

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From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cynews.com/>

Thursday, November 25, 1999

Papandreou: unique opportunity for Cyprus

GREECE'S stance at the EU Helsinki summit continued to inspire speculative lead stories. Prominence was given to Ankara's efforts to prevent Greece's attempt to link Turkey's EU accession course to progress in the Cyprus problem.

Politis carried an exclusive interview with Greece's Foreign Minister Giorgos Papandreou, who claimed there were opportunities that we have never seen before, in 25 years. Athens and Nicosia had an obligation to take advantage of them@ for the benefit of Cyprus and Greek interests. Papandreou said that the Cyprus issue had risen in the list of priorities of US foreign policy and that there would be substantive talks in New York.

Speaking about the Helsinki summit, he said that Greece had Aa big opportunity@ because it could use Turkey's candidacy to secure progress in the ongoing disputes between the two countries. If Greece did not secure a satisfactory response at the summit, it would veto the decision to give candidate status to Turkey, he said.

Phileleftheros claimed that Greece's Foreign Ministry would demand the return of Varosha, the re-opening of Nicosia International Airport and the decreasing of the number of occupation troops in Cyprus from Turkey, as part of its road map' to the EU. These steps would be taken, gradually, as part of Turkey's EU accession course, the paper said.

The ministry realised that this was a difficult task, that would meet with opposition from the more powerful EU member countries, which did not want to set specific conditions. Even if the above proposals were rejected, the Greek government was hoping that certain conditions would be satisfied before it gave its consent to Turkey's candidacy.

Alithia reported that Turkey was hardening its position in response to the conditions Greece was setting for its candidacy. Sukru Gurel, the Turkish minister dealing with the Cyprus issue, said that Turkey would not accept the status of EU candidate, if the start of accession negotiations was linked with irrelevant political issues such as Cyprus. He said it was absurd that the EU could not give a date for the start of accession negotiations, but set conditions for it.

It said that the Turkish government was not happy with a letter from the EU presidency, which set certain conditions for EU candidacy, relating to Ankara's foreign policy. The Greek government responded to this, by saying that the chances that it would waive its veto rights were even.

Haravghi reported that the National Council would meet on Monday to discuss the approach that the government would take at the proximity talks, particularly on the four issues on which the UN Secretary-General had asked for the views of President Clerides.

Clerides had said he did not consider it necessary for the Party leaders to accompany him to New York as he did not expect substantive negotiations. The matter would be further discussed at the National Council meeting.

Simerini claimed that an environmental study, the findings of which were to be released soon, had established that air pollution in Nicosia was alarmingly high. It said that even though air pollution levels were not above the maximum acceptable, they were rising, in contrast to all other European cities. This was harmful to Nicosia residents' health and reduced the fertility of men.

Machi led with a report about the murder attempt against three men in Kivides, a village in the Limassol district. The three were fired at while travelling in a car on a country road. Makis Ioannou, whose brother had been murdered last January, was injured in the eye and the chest. The driver, Christos Christou, suffered similar injuries while the third man escaped with light injuries.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1999

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