In a joint declaration, European MPs are expected to call for the start of direct flights to northern Cyprus and speak out for Turkey's EU membership process
31.03.2007: Turkish Daily News
FULYA ÖZERKAN ANKARA - Turkish Daily News
Twenty European lawmakers of Turkish descent will participate in a "northern Cyprus summit” in Kyrenia over the weekend, an initiative aimed at illuminating the European public about the realities of the northern part of the island and explaining not the Turkish Cypriots but the Greek Cypriots stand in the way of re-unification.
"But in order to achieve this European parliamentarians first need to be provided with information so that they can later easily relay it to their public, something which will open the way for lobbying activities within their own political parties,” Ozan Ceyhun, former member of the European Parliament, told the Turkish Daily News in an interview.
The summit backed by both the Turkish Cypriot presidency and the Chamber of Commerce follows another meeting of European lawmakers of Turkish origin in Ankara in late February.
But Ceyhun, a social democrat politician and mastermind of the weekend event, said the plans for the northern Cyprus summit had been forged beforehand, adding it had nothing to do with the Ankara summit that created an atmosphere of dialogue between the Turkish government and European lawmakers to improve European Union candidate Turkey's image in the West.
"I was engaged in efforts to support the pro-reunification Republican Turks' Party (CTP) in northern Cyprus and encouraged my German parliamentarian friends to directly fly to Ercan airport. Turkish Cypriot President Mehmet Ali Talat said he would welcome such a summit when I asked him three to four months ago how he would consider if a summit was hosted in the north,” Ceyhun said.
Summit to call for easing of sanctions:
In cooperation with Turkish Cypriot government officials European MPs of Turkish origin in Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland and Austria will have set up three working groups at the local, state and national levels to convey the realities of Cyprus, unfair sanctions imposed on the Turkish Cypriots and to promote northern Cyprus in the West.
A joint declaration will be released on Saturday following the meetings.
"We'll definitely demand that sanctions in the north be lifted and direct flights start between Europe and northern Cyprus. We'll also voice support for Turkey's EU membership process,” Ceyhun said.
He added as the parliamentarians they would also speak out for the policies pursued by Talat and Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister Ferdi Sabit Soyer on the divided island.
Germany's leading Turkish politician Hakký Keskin, member of the Belgian Senate Fatma Pehlivan, member of the Danish Parliament Hüseyin Araç, member of the Belgian Federal Parliament Cemal Çavdarlý and member of the Berlin State Parliament Özcan Mutlu are among the participants of the weekend summit.
