Talat feels lack of EU warmth
LONDON (Reuters) – Turkish-Cypriot administration leader Mehmet Ali Talat criticized the European Union for failing to end the enclave’s economic isolation, in an interview with the Financial Times newspaper published on Saturday. The Financial Times said Talat had been pushing for direct flights from Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus – especially to London – and for companies in the enclave to be able to trade directly with the EU following the Turkish Cypriots’ approval, on April 24, of a United Nations unification plan that the Greek Cypriots rejected. «After the referendum result the EU said we would be brought in from the cold, but we have yet to feel any warmth,» Talat told the Financial Times. «Ending the international isolation of Turkish Cypriots is not just tactical to improve our lives. It is a strategic matter for the solution of the Cyprus problem,» he added. «I’m afraid the international community’s interest in the Turkish Cypriots is also decreasing,» Talat said. «The Cyprus problem is now a European problem and the EU has to deal with it.»
