EU, Turkey agree on protocol
The European Union and Turkey have agreed on the text of a protocol extending the country’s customs union to 10 new EU members, including Cyprus, Turkish TV reported yesterday. According to TV channels NTV and CNN Turk, «Ankara expects Brussels to begin the letter-exchange process immediately.» «We asked the European Commission to send the letter on the text of the protocol. If the letter is the same text we agreed, then it will be approved,» a Turkish official told reporters yesterday. The Turkish Parliament must approve the protocol for it to take effect. Approval of the protocol is a controversial issue in Turkey because it is seen by many as tantamount to de facto recognition of Cyprus. Turkey is the only country that does not recognize the Republic of Cyprus. It maintains 30,000 troops in the occupied north. A dispatch by Turkey’s official press agency, Anatolia, said that, at the Turkish government’s insistence, all mention of the use of ports and airports, as well as a paragraph referring to the immediate implementation of the protocol, were excised from the text. CNN Turk said that Turkey would announce, on the day it signs the protocol, that it does not recognize the Republic of Cyprus. Such an action, however, could compromise the opening of membership talks with the EU, which are scheduled for October 3. The EU has made the signing a precondition for talks to go ahead as scheduled, but such a verbal declaration could lead Cyprus, and possibly other member states, to veto the talks. Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, visiting Cyprus on Saturday, declared that «in international relations, you sign something to implement it.»
