EP report urges immediate troop pullout from Cyprus

The report, penned by Dutch Christian Democrat Ria Oomen-Ruijten, calls on Turkey to hand over a Turkish Cypriot town to Greek Cypriots and to immediately begin the withdrawal of Turkish troops.

From the northern part of the island in order to contribute to ongoing reunification talks led by the United Nations between Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders. The European Parliament “calls on the Turkish government actively to support the ongoing negotiations and to contribute in concrete terms to the comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus issue, based on a bizonal, bicommunal federation, in line with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and the principles on which the EU is founded; calls on Turkey to facilitate a suitable climate for negotiations by immediately starting to withdraw its forces from Cyprus, by addressing the issue of the settlement of Turkish citizens on the island and also by enabling the return of the sealed-off section of Famagusta [Gazimağusa in Turkish] to its lawful inhabitants in compliance with Resolution 550 (1984) of the United Nations Security Council.”

The settlement which is mentioned as “the sealed-off section of Famagusta” is a suburb of Famagusta called Varosha (Maraş in Turkish.)

Varosha, once a prime vacation resort run mainly by Greek Cypriots, is now in a military zone and closed to civilians. In 2006, Finland, then the term president of the EU, floated a plan that provided for the opening of the port of Famagusta in Turkish Cyprus to international trade under EU administration in return for opening a limited number of Turkish ports to traffic from Greek Cyprus and the transfer of Varosha to the United Nations. The plan, however, failed to materialize after a series of closed-door talks among the parties concerned.

European Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Commissioner Stefan Fuele of the Czech Republic addresses the European Parliament during yesterday’s debate on the progress made by Croatia, Turkey and former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia towards EU accession.

Turkey sent its troops to Cyprus in 1974 following attacks on Turkish Cypriots by Greek Cypriot groups favoring unification with Greece and eventually a Greek-inspired coup on the island. Turkey now has more than 30,000 troops deployed on the Turkish part of the island.

Cyprus joined the European Union as a divided island when Greek Cypriots in the south rejected a UN reunification plan in twin referendums in 2004, although the Turkish Cypriots in the north overwhelmingly supported it. The issue of security guarantees is one of the thorniest disputes that Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat and Greek Cypriot leader Dimitri Christofias need to tackle during the negotiations.

Other contentious statements likely to arouse anger in Ankara include a section that “calls on the Turkish government to cease hindering civilian vessels prospecting for oil on behalf of the Republic of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean; urges Turkey to ensure that the rights of all displaced persons in Cyprus are respected, including those of religious minorities, and that they are allowed freely to exercise their religious rights; stresses that, in the case of the Catholic Maronite community, freedoms should also be accorded to all four Maronite villages; welcomes the reactivation of the Committee on Missing Persons [CMP] and calls on Turkey to take appropriate action on this humanitarian issue.”

In late January, when the draft report was adopted by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, Ankara labeled the draft “unbalanced and subjective vis-à-vis Turkey’s European Union membership process.”

“Elements linked to Cyprus which the European Parliament wants to include in the report are related to a solution and are subject to negotiations that aim to reach a solution. We expect the European Parliament to support efforts that could lead to a positive result at the end of the process for reaching a comprehensive solution in Cyprus. Contrary behaviors have the possibility of casting a shadow over the European Parliament’s credibility and making it seem like it does not serve any goal,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Burak Özügergin said at the time in a written statement, which came in the form of an answer to a journalist’s question.