In a letter written to the 24 EU member countries on 1 June 2004, Prime Minister Talat requested that they keep their promises made to the Turkish Cypriots.

The full text of the letter is as follows:

“Excellency,

I am writing to you on the eve of your important European Council meeting. I know you will discuss many important issues including the future Constitution for Europe. I hope you will be able to reach a conclusion on this crucial document.

I feel obliged, Your Excellency, as representative of the Turkish Cypriots to raise before your meeting, the anomalous situation in Cyprus. The Greek Cypriot side has entered the European Union and we as Turkish Cypriots despite our ‘yes’ vote are still outside. We feel European and we would like to be part of Europe as soon as possible. We do not want to be treated as European citizens only on the basis of our individual rights. We want more, specifically to be part of a continuous peace process and to raise our society to a more prosperous level.We are still disappointed with the untenable situation on the island and feel that the Greek Cypriots who are participating in the EU Institutions cannot represent us.

We are grateful, Your Excellency, for your stated aim to bring to an end to our economic isolation and to deliver assistance including harmonization with the acquis. Quite frankly, this is very important to us, although the overall aim remains the achievement of a solution of the Cyprus problem as soon as possible. We would like to ask your influence over Mr. Papadopoulos and to stop his intransigent attitude towards solving the Cyprus problem.

In the meantime, Your Excellency, we are seriously committed to upgrade our economy but this can only be done with the help of the European Union. We call therefore upon you as one of the leaders of the European citizens, to take additional steps to speed up the various measures promised by your Ministers on 26 April.

We ask you to accelerate the preparation for the promised assistance (259 million Euro) and to provide technical assistance to allow us to harmonize with the acquis.

Direct trade, including the opening of our airports and ports, is the only feasible way to take us out of our economic isolation. In the conclusions, at the end of your meeting, we call on you to explicitly mention this point. In fact, we do not believe in intra-island trade because there are many legal obstacles and above all the climate on the Greek Cypriot side is simply not conducive towards such trade.

We have taken steps to allow free circulation of EU citizens on the island in line with the principles of the EU Treaty. We expect, Your Excellency, that you reciprocate our steps by accelerating your procedures to take us out of our economic isolation. We are entitled to this after our courageous ‘yes’ in the referendum on the Annan Plan. If both sides had said ‘yes’, it would have been a United Republic of Cyprus and not the Repulic of Cyprus that would have entered the EU on 1 May. Consequently, the Turkish Cypriots who overwhelmingly voted ‘yes’ should not be treated as an appendage of the wholly Greek Cypriot “Republic of Cyprus”.