Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Talat in a letter written to the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, talked about measures taken by the TRNC regarding the education of the Greek Cypriot and Maronite children living in North Cyprus, facilitating the reciprocal crossings between North and South and the missing persons issue.

The full text of the letter is as follows:

“Your Excellency,

I have the honour to refer to your Report on the United Nations Operation in Cyprus dated 26 May 2004 (S/2004/427) and to bring to your kind attention the following views and developments, which have not been included in your said report.

At the outset, I would like to inform Your Excellency about the constructive measures recently taken by the Government of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) with regard to the education of the Greek Cypriot and Maronite children living in North Cyprus as well as the reciprocal crossings between North and South.

As Your Excellency is well aware, the Greek Cypriots in the Karpaz peninsula have their own primary school where children are taught by Greek Cypriot teachers with books used at Greek Cypriot schools in South Cyprus.

In respect of the natural rights of the Greek Cypriot and Maronite children to receive education in their mother tongue and taking into consideration the present situation in which the Greek Cypriot and Maronite children choose to stay in South Cyprus during the academic year despite our new measures providing for every day crossings across the border, the TRNC Government has reviewed this all-important issue and took a landmark decision aimed at its permanent solution.

On 21 May 2004, the TRNC Council of Ministers decided (Decision No: T-803-2004) to take the necessary legislative measures for the establishment of special status public schools providing education in their mother language to the Greek Cypriot and Maronite children living in the TRNC. Furthermore, the Ministry of Education and Culture has been authorised with the said decision to start and complete all the necessary preparations for the opening of such a fully fledged secondary school in the Karpaz area with a view to starting education at the 2004-2005 academic year. I am happy to inform Your Excellency that the relevant Ministry has already started the necessary work so that a fully-fledged secondary schooling facility be in place at the Karpaz peninsula for the upcoming academic year. We hope that this humanitarian initiative shall receive an equally positive reaction from the Greek Cypriot side and mark the beginning of the necessary co-operation towards solving the problems encountered in the field of education over the island as a whole including starting equal preparations for Turkish teaching schools for the Turkish Cypriot students living in South.

As regards the reciprocal crossings, the Council of Ministers took a series of new decisions amending the prior ones on this issue with a view to further enhancing the free and easy movement of people between the two sides as well as providing for unlimited stays in North Cyprus. With its three consecutive decisions taken on 21 and 24 May 2004 (Decision No: T-816-2004, T-818-2004, T-819-2004) the Council of Ministers announced that the requirement for producing a valid passport upon entering North Cyprus has been changed and as of 26 May 2004 identity cards would also be accepted in addition to passports. Furthermore, this requirement has been totally lifted for children under 11 years of age provided that they are accompanied by at least one of their parents. The modalities for the organization of group tours for the EU nationals (citizens) to North Cyprus have also been regulated. Accordingly, authorized travel agencies can now organize and carry out tours from South Cyprus with no restrictions whatsoever as regards to the number of people, tour details, duration of stay or time of entry and exit.

Most recently, the Council of Ministers Decision No: T-820-2004 taken on 1 June 2004 has unilaterally waived all restrictions with regard to the time of crossings across the two sides and the duration of stay in the TRNC. At the moment, everyone, including Greek Cypriots, wishing to come to North Cyprus from the South is free to cross over at any time and there are no limits on their duration of stay if they choose to do so. Naturally, the same modalities apply to crossings from the North and stays in South Cyprus.

As for the humanitarian issues of missing persons, I wish to stress our full agreement with the observation in Paragraph 13 of your above-mentioned report that its solution is long overdue and a fresh commitment is necessary towards this end. As the Turkish Cypriot side, we consider the UN Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP) as an appropriate mechanism to investigate and solve this humanitarian problem and spare no effort to contribute to its work.

We, therefore, welcome Your Excellency’s determination to restart the formal activities of the CMP and reiterate our full commitment towards fulfilling our responsibilities and taking the actions necessary for the speedy solution of this long lasting issue within the CMP mechanism. Within this context, I wish to state our readiness to discuss and decide upon any further investigations, additional methods or modalities that may be deemed necessary in relation to the missing persons in Cyprus with respect to universal human rights and freedoms or other legal considerations.

Your Excellency, the Turkish Cypriot side has once again taken the initiative in spite of the recent disappointing developments and decided to adopt the foregoing goodwill measures as an expression of our will for a just and viable solution in the island. We hope that the international community will not only urge the Greek Cypriot side to sincerely adopt the same constructive approach but take the necessary concrete steps towards putting an end to the unjust circumstances in which the Turkish Cypriot people have been living through no fault of their own, and work towards the reunification of the island.