Cyprus PIO: Turkish Cypriot Press and Other Media, 98-07-23

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From: The Republic of Cyprus Press and Information Office Server at <http://www.pio.gov.cy/>

TURKISH CYPRIOT PRESS AND OTHER MEDIA

No. 131/97 -- 23.7.98

[A] NEWS ITEMS

[01] Turkish-Turkish Cypriot ``Joint Economic Committee'' meets.

[02] Denktash: ``No point in Hannay lecturing Turkish Cypriots''.

[03] Eroglu: ``Turkish Cypriots not to join EU process''.

[04] Programme of Demirel´s visit to the occupied area.

[05] Etkin meets Ann Hercus.

[06] Pseudostate issues ``commemorative stamps''.

[07] Turkish Ministers, deputies to attend ``Partnership Council'' meeting.

[B] COMMENTS AND EDITORIALS

[08] Turkish paper sees Denktash, Demirel blocking progress.

[A] NEWS ITEMS

[01] Turkish-Turkish Cypriot ``Joint Economic Committee'' meets

Addressing the opening of the meeting, Ahmet Zeki Bulunc, the ``undersecretary'' of the so-called state planning organization of the pseudostate said that they will take up the issues which will determine the agenda and complete the preliminary works of the ``Partnership Council'' with the delegation coming from Turkey.

Noting that the negotiations will give useful results, Bulunc said that the strong cooperation and dialogue between the two sides will further strengthen at the end of this meeting, adding that the main goal is to overcome the economic problems and to bring the ``TRNC'' to a stronger economic position.

[02] Denktash: ``No point in Hannay lecturing Turkish Cypriots''

Denktash commented on the statements made by Sir David Hannay, EU´s special Cyprus envoy, at the Chamber of Commerce the other night. Denktash said that if his remarks are to carry any validity, Hannay must accept that the application submitted to the EU concerns only the Greek Cypriots. He stated: ``I do not have a personal quarrel or case with Sir David Hannay. Moreover, there is nothing new that Sir David can say to me other than what he addressed to me during last night´s conference. I, in turn, have nothing else to tell him other than our 23 April declaration.''

Dentkash pointed out that Hannay is a representative of the EU Presidency and his task is to explain the beauty of EU membership to the Turkish Cypriots, who are considered a minority according to the EU decisions on Cyprus. He added: ``According to this EU decision, the legitimate Cyprus government is the only respondent. Given these facts, there is no point in Sir David´s lecturing us.''

Denktash declared: ``We have nothing to discuss with the EU unless it changes its attitude of accepting the Greek Cypriot Administration, which sees the Turkish Cypriots as a minority, as the legitimate government and considering us a community at the same level as the Armenian-Maronite minority''.

Noting that the interest displayed by Sir David in the economy of the pseudostate is a belated interest, Denktash alleged: ``If Sir David wants to win the Turkish Cypriots´ credibility, he should deal with the visa evil his government imposed on the Turkish Cypriots, announce to the world as well as to Clerides that he is not the government of the Turkish Cypriots and he does not have the right to speak on their behalf, and try to rectify the one-sided EU decisions that condemned us.''

Denktash also claimed that by saying that he shuns dialogue and prefers isolation, Sir David is doing an injustice.

[03] Eroglu: ``Turkish Cypriots not to join EU process''

Eroglu said in a written statement that the ``TRNC won`t join the process which has been started by the Greek Cypriot administration to set up the Greek Cypriot sovereignty all over Cyprus.''

Referring to the conference hosted by the EU Term President Austria and Sir David Hannay, the British Special Representative to Cyprus, at the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Trade, Eroglu said ``I condemn the statement issued by Hannay who ignores the basic rights of the Turkish Cypriot people such as equality, sovereignty and self-determination.''

Claiming that the attitude of a British diplomat, who invites the Turkish Cypriots to act together with the ``illegal will'', as he put it, of the Greek Cypriots and ``who intervenes with the rights of sovereignty of the TRNC'' is alarming, Eroglu alleged that ``the Turkish side favours peace and stability on the island and in the region.''

``While the Turkish Cypriots set forth their free will in line with the sovereignty of the TRNC, it isn`t appropriate for a British diplomat, having the title of Sir, to provoke several groups within the society against the state and thus the will of the public,'' Eroglu said.

[04] Programme of Demirel´s visit to the occupied area

Demirel will arrive in the occupied area at 9 a.m. at the occupied Tymbou airport. At 9:30 a.m. he will go by helicopter to the water transport installations at Syrianochori and at 10 a.m. he will inaugurate the installations. At 11.45 a.m he will have a meeting with Denktash, at 12.15 p.m. he will be given the ``golden key'' of the occupied Nicosia by the so- called mayor of occupied Nicosia.

At 12.25 p.m. he will arrive at the pseudostate´s ``assembly'' and at 12:30 p.m. he will address the ``assembly''. He will also visit the occupation army´s headquarters as well as the so-called East Mediterranean University where he will inaugurate the sports complex built there and will take part at the stone laying ceremony of the University´s Fine Arts Faculty building. He will leave the occupied area at 16:30.

(MY)

[05] Etkin meets Ann Hercus

The meeting lasted two hours. After the meeting Etkin said that it was a courtesy meeting, during which there was a general exchange of views. (MY)

[06] Pseudostate issues ``commemorative stamps''

The pseudostate has issued a similar commemorative stamp when Turkish prime minister Mesut Yilmaz illegally visited the occupied area on 20.7.98. The stamps depict Demirel´s and Yilmaz´s portraits, respectively. (MY)

[07] Turkish Ministers, deputies to attend ``Partnership Council'' meeting

At 10:35, Rauf Denktash will meet the ministers and the parliamentarians Mumtaz Soysal (Democratic Left Party, DSP), Demir Berberoglu (Motherland Party, ANAP), Algan Hacaloglu (Republican People´s Party, CHP), Huseyin Ari (Virtue Party, FP), and Unal Erkan (True Path Party, DYP).

The ``Partnership Council'' will convene at 11:15. The news conference will be at !6:00.

Immediately after the news conference, the ministers and parliamentarians will leave the occupied area.

[B] COMMENTS AND EDITORIALS

[08] Turkish paper sees Denktash, Demirel blocking progress

``This is my third day in Cyprus, in Nicosia. I also visited Kyrenia, toured Bellapais, and took a dip in the sea, and came out thinking that the whole of Cyprus, with its Kyrenia and Nicosia, is like an utterly `dead ´ town of 150,000 people. There is almost no one in the streets. Yes, the shops are open, but you wonder why.

The road linking Nicosia to Kyrenia has been `under construction´ for the last 11 years. There are almost seems to be no municipal and government services. Yet, everybody depends on the state for subsistence. Almost every family has a member that works as a civil servant. Already, in Cyprus you are either a state employee or jobless. The textile industry has vanished, agriculture shrunk, and production has hit rock bottom. It seems almost nothing is moving in Cyprus. As if covered with a dead earth, Cyprus has plunged into an open-ended hibernation, and is just sleeping there without a twitch. Seeing that, one gets despondent and pessimistic.

Cyprus history goes as far back as 7,000 years before Christ. Numerous civilizations have risen, existed, and left their marks on these lands. That makes it even harder to comprehend the almost `non-existence´ of any tourism in Cyprus. You would only sit and cry if you compare the number of tourists visiting the Greek Cypriot sector and the Turkish sector.

But, we now have a gambling tourism in Cyprus. Immediately upon landing from their planes, the gamblers from `mainland Turkey´ rush to the `casino´ hotels, and after their gambling delights or torments return to their planes and vanish into the thin air. This is a form of tourism, more precisely a gambling tourism, that only enriches the hotels in question.

All this while I had been mulling over the `ready ripostes´ given to Bogazici University students on the 32nd Day Program by Rauf Denktash, who has been `managing´ Cyprus for decades now. Anytime that you raise a criticism, Rauf Denktash replies: `That is something also asserted by the opposition; such criticisms only serve the Greek Cypriots.´ He is a politician that always uses such arguments to defend himself and his policies as if they were unassailable castles.

Rauf Denktash´s personality and style of speech, his insistence to be an obliging and congenial guest of honour at the circumcision rites and a witness in weddings, even his readiness to attend shop inaugurations, his recall of the names of almost every person he has met and his ability to ask such personal questions as `did your son graduate the school?´ cast him as a perfect father figure who loves and cares about the citizens, and in that he reminds me of Suleyman Demirel, whom we have been shackled with for so many years.

Their characters are also similar even in `timing games´ to which they owe their ability to stay in power. And, I cannot but see both of them as blocks hindering their countries´ advance toward the better, toward more democracy and progress. I believe that for decades they have been fulfilling their roles of congealing or disrupting and even stopping the flow of blood in the arteries of our countries by Byzantine games, in which they are unparalleled masters in the world, and with a selfless and superhuman zeal. These are people who would never learn how to withdraw from the public life. These are people who think they have been created to be in power. They have dedicated their lives to this path, and they will not, they simply cannot, step out of that path. Their very existence depends on these games and struggles.

For years Rauf Denktash has been saying the same things at international talks, thereby successfully displaying his role as a `block´. Certainly, there are things that he is fully justified in saying. But what is justified and unjustified have gotten mixed up and turned into an inextricable skein. And, he goes on repeating the same things over and over again true to the last comma. Some realities do change, but his arguments never do.

I am staying in a hotel inside Nicosia´s historic walls. This is a very ancient quarter. Besides, it is very beautiful. Yet, only the jinnis roam the streets at nights, nobody is outside despite the hot climate. That is because this place has been abandoned to the immigrants, that is, to the easterners (settlers from eastern Turkey). After a few incidents of thievery and robbery, the islanders, who have no desire at all to intermingle with the `Easterners´, have gotten scared of them, who in their turn plan to return to their homes as soon as possible after making some money on these bankrupt lands. The islanders have completely withdrawn into themselves and their homes. They do not step in places where the `Easterners´ live. Despite the heat, they are confined to their homes, and during the day, because of scarcity of public transportation, they move about in their dilapidated cars. The young never return to Cyprus after graduating the universities. Even if they do, will they be able to find work?

I also got acquainted with many excellent, sweet, and intelligent people in Cyprus. One wishes a miracle, a dream prince to come and kiss the Cypriots to raise them from their deep sleep, to revive them, and bring them to their senses.''

From the Republic of Cyprus Press and Information Office (PIO) Server at http://www.pio.gov.cy/

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