Turkey Digs Heels In Over Cypriot-Flagged Ships
Speaking to Reuters over the weekend, Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Abdullatif
Sener announced that the Turkish authorities would not make any unilateral moves
to open the country's ports to Cypriot-flagged vessels, an announcement which
is likely to have an adverse impact on Turkey's EU membership negotiations. The Island's shipping fleet is the third largest in the European Union after
Greece and Malta. Responding to the remarks this week, Cyprus's Foreign Minister, George Iacovou
told the news service that: "If this is what the deputy prime minister has said, then they are on
a collision course with the EU. It is only a matter of time." He continued: "The Republic of Cyprus is a member state of the EU. Its accord was required
for Turkey to commence negotiations. We gave this after ensuring that Turkey
would behave in a certain manner." "There is a rendezvous, where Turkey will have to give account of the
progress it has made so far ... if it continues to maintain this line, irrespective
of its phoney arguments, it will put itself on a collision course with the EU." It was initially hoped that the Turkish government's signature of a document
extending its customs union with the EU to the ten new member states would result
in a lifting of the ban on Cypriot-flagged ships and aircraft. .
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