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Cyprus News Agency: News in English, 08-01-11Cyprus News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Cyprus News Agency at <http://www.cyna.org.cy>CONTENTS
[01] UN - CYPRUS QUESTIONUN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Turkish President Abdullah Gul have met in New York and discussed the Cyprus issue, Iraq, as well as relations between Turkey and the UN, according to a press release issued by the office of the UNSGs spokesperson.Commenting on the meeting, a UN chiefs spokesperson has told CNA that the dinner offered by the Turkish President in Ban Ki moons honor can be described as a private one. Gul told Turkish journalists that he discussed with UNSG the Cyprus issue, Iran, Iraq as well as Turkeys application to become a non permanent member of the UN Security Council for the period 2009-2010. Referring to Cyprus, Gul said he encouraged the UNSG to start a new initiative after Februarys presidential elections in Cyprus. He added that he reassured the UN chief of the Turkeys willingness to continue its positive stance regarding a Cyprus settlement. The Turkish President reiterated to Ban Ki moon the need for the international community to end what he described as embargo on the Turkish Cypriots. Turkish sources have said that Gul thanked the UN chief for the references he included in his December report regarding the lifting of the so-called isolation of the Turkish Cypriots. The same source said that Ban Ki moon informed the Turkish President about the difficulties which emerged within the Security Council relating to attempts to adopt his report as well as his predecessors (Kofi Annans ) report of May 2004. Guls program included yesterday a meeting with former US Foreign Minister Henry Kissinger. On December 14th, 2007, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution extending UNFICYPs (UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus) mandate for a further period ending 15 June 2008. Ban Ki-moons references on the need to end the so-called isolation of the Turkish Cypriots were not included in the resolution. The Turkish side maintains that an international embargo is imposed on the Turkish Cypriots, since the 1974 invasion of Cyprus by the Turkish military, which halts the economic development of the Turkish Cypriot community. The government of Cyprus points out that the embargo is the direct outcome of the continuing occupation of the islands northern part and the hold of Turkey on the Turkish Cypriots. The government has in the past few years announced and applied measures to help the economic development of the Turkish Cypriots, whose per capita income has increased in this period. [02] ECHR - MISSING - JUDGMENTGreek Cypriot lawyers, representing missing persons since the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, have described as important, legally and politically a judgment by the European Court of Human Rights which found Turkey guilty of human rights violations.Achilleas Demetriades and Kypros Chrysostomides have said the judgment is significant in that it establishes continuous violation of human rights by Turkey with regard to the missing as well as their relatives. In addition to that the Court, they pointed out, rejects the notion of presumed dead in the case of Greek Cypriot missing, as Turkey had claimed before the Court. The lawyers also believe that the Court ruling does not absolve Turkey of blame as far a effective investigation of the fate of missing persons is concerned in spite of the work carried out by the Committee of Missing Persons (CMP), which has exhumed and identified remains of missing Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. The President of the Committee of Relatives of Missing Persons Nicos Theodosiou expressed hope that todays decision will exert pressure on Turkey to allow access to the archives of its military and its jails in order to obtain information that would establish the fate of those missing. The decision is not final and can be appealed against within three months to the plenary of the European Court. The decision is set to be discussed at the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which monitors the execution of Court judgments. [03] EU - FMD - BAN LIFTEDThe Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health, acting upon a suggestion by the European Commission, has decided to lift the restrictions on transport and trade of meet and meet-derivatives imposed on Cyprus, after foot and mouth disease was detected on the island.The ban on movement and trade of living animals believed to be infected with the disease is expected to be lifted by the end of January. As a precautionary measure as required by international standards, the ban on the export of living animals, sperm and embryos from Cyprus will continue. The Commission points out that if the development as regards the disease continues to be positive all precautionary measures are expected to be lifted by the end of the current month. Cyprus News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |