Cyprus News Agency: News in English, 96-09-05

Cyprus News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: "HR-Net News Distribution Manager" <dist@hri.org>

CONTENTS

[01] History and Geography compel us to coexist, says Akinci

[02] UN top envoys for Cyprus to visit Athnens, Ankara

[03] Hopes for increased effort after Greek elections

[04] CoE Rapporteur to visit Cyprus

[05] Cabinet approves 1997 state budgets

[06] Cyprus Stock Exchange

[07] Cyprus status quo is unsustainable

[08] Community leaders to launch International campaign on Cyprus

1200:CYPPRESS:01

[01] History and Geography compel us to coexist, says Akinci

Mustafa Akinci, leader of the Turkish Cypriot Communal Liberation Party (CLP), visited yesterday the mixed village of Pyla, where Greek and Turkish Cypriots continue to live together under UN control after the 1974 Turkish invasion and continued occupation of Cyprus' northern third.

Akinci talked with people from both communities and the UN authorities about the present situation at Pyla. A hostility and insecurity climate is evident there, following last month's killings of two young Greek Cypriot protestors by the Turkish occupation troops and extremists during anti-occupation demonstrations at the Dherynia UN buffer zone.

CLP leader expressed his sympathy to the families of the two victims for the ''murders'', as he said.

He said most Turkish Cypriots blame the Greek Cypriot side for organising the demonstrations but admitted that reaction followed was not an ''indicated one.''

Akinci condemned the way the illegal occupation regime faced the bikers' demonstrations and the participation of members of the ultra nationalist organisation ''Grey Wolves'' from Turkey against them and described it as a ''major mistake.''

At the same time, he criticised Cyprus police for not taking measures to prevent bikers enter the buffer zone and the government for not managing to stop the rally earlier.

He said after 22 years with the Cyprus problem unresolved, this was not the right way to try and solve it. He pointed out ''we are paying the price for not implementing the Confidence Building Measures (CBMs).''

''Had the CBMs been implemented, we would not reach the Dherynia tragic incidents'', Akinci noted and said ''steps have to be taken at any cost towards mutual understanding''.

''History and Geography are compelling us to live together, so we have to find the way'', he said, adding both communities have an ''historic responsibility'' to work in this direction.

Concluding, the Turkish Cypriot politician said ways have to be found so that those incidents would not have a negative effect and pass the impression that the two communities can not coexist on this island.

Akinci's visit has also been reported in today's Turkish Cypriot press.

CNA AP/GP/1996

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

1310:CYPPRESS:02

[02] UN top envoys for Cyprus to visit Athens, Ankara

Reliable sources have told CNA that Han and Feissel intend to visit both capitals, Athens and Ankara, in a bid to push efforts to resume a dialogue between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities on the island.

Both officials will leave Cyprus on Monday, September 16, after they conclude a series of meetings with President Glafcos Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash here.

After his tour of Cyprus, Greece and Turkey, Han will travel to New York.

The UN envoy arrives in Cyprus on Tuesday, September 10, and is expected to see the ambassadors of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

This is the second visit to the island of the former South Korean Foreign Minister since his appointment in April 1996.

It is his first visit after the August killings of two Greek Cypriot young demonstrators by Turkish troops and extremists in the UN-controlled buffer zone at Dherynia.

More than 50 other people, including two British UN peacekeepers, were injured.

Turkish troops have been occupying 37 per cent of Cyprus territory since 1974, in violation of repeated UN resolutions calling for their withdrawal.

CNA MM/GP/1996

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

1330:CYPPRESS:03

[03] Hopes for increased effort after Greek elections

The government would like to see all those interested in the Cyprus peace effort to work in the direction of Ankara, who should be involved in paving the way for a dialogue in Cyprus.

''Time is pressing but we hope that after elections in Greece, scheduled for 22 September, there will be an opportunity to start intensive efforts for a settlement in Cyprus,'' Government Spokesman Yiannakis Cassoulides told a meeting of overseas Cypriots here today.

He told some 140 Cypriots, members of various organisations dealing with the promotion of the Cyprus cause in their respective countries of abode, that the ''Greek Cypriot side seeks to embark on a properly prepared process which would find common ground and render a prospective dialogue productive.''

Failure to bring a dialogue to some conclusion, he said, would undermine faith in the dialogue and the peace process, a development which would serve the objectives of those who do not wish the Cyprus question settled.

''It is high time that Turkey got involved in the peace process and the only way to achieve this is to see those interested parties talk not only with the Turkish Cypriot side but also with Ankara,'' Cassoulides said.

The Spokesman called on delegates, representing all continents, to press upon their interlocutors that the Cyprus issue is one of invasion and occupation.

He also urged them to expose Ankara's and the illegal Turkish Cypriot regime's real intention regarding the Cyprus peace effort, which focus on legalising the division of Cyprus and consolidation of the faits accomplis created by the 1974 Turkish invasion of the island.

Referring to the recent brutal killings of two unarmed Greek Cypriots by Turkish troops and extremists during anti-occupation demonstrations in the UN buffer zone, Cassoulides said Turkish brutality was ''preplanned and aimed at creating false impressions that Greek and Turkish Cypriots cannot live together on this island.

''The Turkish Cypriot regime had to bring to Cyprus members of the Turkish terrorist group 'Grey Wolves' to carry out the aggressive acts against Greek Cypriot protestors,'' Cassoulides noted.

Members of ''Grey Wolves'', illegal Turkish settlers and so-called Turkish Cypriot police officers savagely beat to death one of the two Greek Cypriot demonstrators. The second was shot dead by Turkish soldiers when climbing up a flagpole to pull down the Turkish flag.

''These incidents make the need to settle the Cyprus problem more imperative because it is widely believed that Cyprus cannot be a source of instability in the region,'' Cassoulides added.

CNA MM/GP/1996

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

1520:CYPPRESS:04

[04] CoE Rapporteur to visit Cyprus

He is due here on 28-30 October for contacts with representatives of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities in a bid to finalise the draft outline of his report.

Reliable sources told CNA that the report focus on the role the European Union can play in efforts to settle the Cyprus question.

This is an important element in the report, which covers the period from December 1994 right through to end of August this year, they added.

The report ''strongly condemns'' the killings of two unarmed Greek Cypriot demonstrators by Turkish troops and extremists during last month's protests against the continuing Turkish occupation of part of Cyprus.

''These murders were the direct result of over reaction'' on the part of the Turks, the report says.

The issue of the illegal Turkish settlers in occupied Cyprus is another matter taken up by Lord Finsberg, who presented his report yesterday before a meeting of the Political Committee which sat in Riga, Latvia.

The report considers the influx of Turkish settlers as a worrying problem.

It also deals with the issue of Greek Cypriot enclaved, living in the occupied areas, as well as the humanitarian issue of persons listed as missing since the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus.

Lord Finsberg has described the living conditions of the enclaved as ''inhumane'' and said he was appalled by the kind of restrictions they have to endure in their daily life.

The final text of the report is expected to go before the plenary of the Political Committee in January next year for approval.

Meanwhile, Cypriot MP Doros Christodoulides briefed the Political Committee on the recent brutal killings of the Greek Cypriot youths by the Turks.

CNA MM/GP/1996

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

1740:CYPPRESS:05

[05] Cabinet approves 1997 state budgets

Speaking to the press after the Council of Ministers meeting, Finance Minister Christodoulos Christodoulou said the three budgets provide for total expenditure amounting to 1.476,3 million Cyprus pounds and for revenue amounting to 1.087,5 million pounds. (One Cyprus pound is approximately two US dollars).

Expenditure increased by 9,5 per cent compared with the 1996 budgets while revenue increased by 8,5 per cent.

The ordinary budget provides for 1.160,7 m. pounds in expenditure and 1.066,2 m. pounds revenue.

The development budget provides for 232,8 m. pounds expenses while the relief fund provides for 82,8 m. pounds expenses and 21,3 m. pounds revenue.

There is a deficit of 388,8 m. pounds in the three budgets compared with 341,7 m. pounds in 1996, an increase of 47,1 m. pounds.

The Minister said based on current data the public deficit for 1996 will be around 2,9 per cent while for 1997 is expected to be around 4 per cent.

Christodoulou said unemployment in Cyprus is around 3 per cent of the economic active population, which is compared favourably with unemployment figures in other European countries.

He said the three budgets do not provide for revenue from new taxes, adding that despite increased spending the 1997 budgets meet all European Union indicators as defined by the Maastricht Treaty.

Development funds will be channelled to the road network, airport expansion, water and rural development projects, education and construction of public buildings.

CNA GP/1996

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

1900:CYPPRESS:06

[06] Cyprus Stock Exchange

CSE All Share Index 88.07 (-1.02)

Sectural Indices

Banks 94.70 (-0.67)

Approved Investment Companies 80.06 (-1.48)

Insurance Companies 67.35 (-1.04)

Industrial Companies 86.44 (-1.23)

Tourist Industries 80.08 (-1.61)

Commercial Companies 74.00 (-3.23)

Other Companies 87.28 (-0.96) Trading Volume CYP 1056522.250

* The difference in brackets represents the percentage increase (+) or decrease (-) of the index from the previous stock exchange meeting.

CNA GP/1996

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

1915:CYPPRESS:07

[07] US: Cyprus status quo is unsustainable

Stephanopoulos made this statement during a live telephone link-up from Washington with Greek Cypriot community leaders abroad, who ended a four-day conference here this evening.

The US official explained that President Clinton could not address the Nicosia conference as he was on his way to Florida as part of his election campaign.

Stephanopoulos stressed that ''we want a Cyprus free of foreign troops. We think that's the best way to achieve peace and that may be one of the few ways, in the long run, to achieve unity, democracy and justice''.

Turkish troops have been occupying 37 per cent of Cyprus territory since 1974, in violation of repeated UN resolutions calling for their withdrawal.

The US official said ''the tragic violence over the last month has proven to us that the division of Cyprus is unnatural and wrong and you should know that the US has not forgotten that we must continue to fight for justice''.

Turkish troops and extremists brutally murdered two unarmed Greek Cypriot demonstrators and injured more than 50 other people during peaceful anti-occupation demonstrations in the UN-controlled buffer zone in Dherynia, last month.

Stephanopoulos expressed President Clinton's determination to help towards a solution to the Cyprus problem.

However, he said Clinton is determined to push forward after the elections in the United States, scheduled for November.

He said ''we have to redouble our efforts to make sure we have a just solution on Cyprus. The President is committed to that. He is going to do everything in his power to see that we can bring the parties together to achieve a just solution on Cyprus and we are going to continue to work very hard on that...''

Stephanopoulos said ''we must continue to press and the President has done in every meeting he's had with a Turkish leader, for the Turkish government to acquiesce to a just settlement on Cyprus.''

To a question how Turkey's agreement with Iran and developments in Iraq affect Cyprus, Stephanopoulos replied ''obviously the whole region is now on a tenterhooks.

''At least, in Iraq today Saddam Hussein is retreating from northern Iraq, from his oppression on the Kurds, in response to the President's bombing strikes over the last couple of days, but all this perfectly shows why we have to do even more to make sure that Turkey is not overrun by islamic fundamentalists''.

Philip Christopher, President of the International Coordinating Committee - Justice for Cyprus, announced that President Clinton will meet leaders of the Greek-American community on September 29 to discuss the election campaign and efforts to find a solution to the Cyprus problem.

CNA MA/GP/1996

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

2025:CYPPRESS:08

[08] Community leaders to launch international campaign on Cyprus

The decision was announced here this evening by Philip Christopher, President of the International Coordinating Committee - Justice for Cyprus (PSEKA).

He told a press conference at the end of a four-day meeting of Cypriot community leaders abroad that the campaign will take place in cooperation with the Cyprus government.

Christopher stressed that the Cyprus problem is not a dispute between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots but a question of foreign invasion and occupation and a problem of colonists settlers and extremists.

The New York-based PSEKA President said Cypriot communities abroad plan to organise photographic exhibitions in various countries to show the recent Turkish atrocities in Cyprus.

The exhibitions will take place in mid November to coincide with the anniversary of the unilateral declaration of independence in the Turkish-occupied part of Cyprus.

UN Security Council resolution 541 of 1984 branded ''legally invalid'' the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in the occupied areas, which has been recognised only by Turkey, whose troops have been occupying 37 per cent of Cyprus territory since 1974.

Christopher announced that overseas Cypriots accompanied by foreign MPs would try to cross into the occupied territory on November 30, to visit the Christian Orthodox monastery of St. Andreas, on the eastern end of this east Mediterranean island.

He said during the conference, the overseas leaders discussed ways to project the Cyprus cause during the forthcoming elections in the United States and Britain.

George Christofides, President of the World Federation of Overseas Cypriots (POMAK), told the press that every individual community association would prepare its action plan.

He announced that a conference on the violation of human rights by Turkey would take place in Britain. A special committee was set up to organise the meeting.

''Our duty is to intensify our efforts to elevate the Cyprus issue on the agenda of the foreign policies in the countries we live'', said the London-based POMAK President.

CNA MA/GP/1996

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

Cyprus News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article