Cyprus News Agency: News in English, 96-11-17

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From: The Cyprus News Agency at <http://www.cyna.org,cy>

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[01] Cyprus and Greece rejected Turkish demand, Clerides says

1400:CYPPRESS:01

[01] Cyprus and Greece rejected Turkish demand, Clerides says

Speaking to the press on his return from Rome, where he addressed the FAO Summit, President Clerides revealed that Ankara had conveyed its demand to the two governments through the US Permanent Representative to the UN Madeleine Albright, during her July 1996 visit to Turkey.

The Turkish government had proposed that, in return, it would stop illegal overflights of Turkish warplanes in Cyprus.

''Following our protest, Albright had called the then Greek Defence Minister Gerasimos Arsenis and me, from Ankara, to inform us she had discussed the issue of Turkish warplanes overflights,'' Clerides said.

The US official, he added, ''said that Turkey was ready to put an end to its flights over the Republic of Cyprus, given that Greece would consent to stop its own overflights.''

The President explained that both himself and Arsenis rejected the Turkish demand.

He also revealed the Director of the State Department Office of Southern European Affairs, Carey Cavanaugh, raised the same issue during their meeting, in Nicosia, last Friday.

''The issue raised did not concern military exercises, but only the overflights,'' Clerides explained.

Asked if he discussed Malta's accession to the European Union during his meeting with Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, Clerides noted they only discussed ''the Cyprus question, the island's accession to the EU and its demilitarisation.''

He noted Malta's bid to join the EU would not ''in any way'' affect Cyprus' accession.

Foreign Minister Alecos Michaelides, Minister of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment Costas Petrides, and Acting Government Spokesman Spyros Arotis, who accompanied President Clerides to Rome, also returned Saturday.

CNA AP/MA/1996

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

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