President Mehmet Ali Talat stated that until the end of the first quarter of 2007, the two leader would come together with the participation of a high level official from the UN and decide whether to start the comprehensive negotiations or not.

President Talat yesterday (30 November) responding to a question asked "what he would say about the Presidential Undersecretary Raþit Pertev’s statement of the previous day to the effect that President Talat would meet with Greek Cypriot leader Tassos Papadopoulos before 31 March”, said Raþit Pertev in his statement had clarified the letter sent by the UN Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari.

Explaining that Gambari’s letter envisaged the two leaders to meet until the end of the first quarter of 2007, evaluate the studies carried out, and if the conditions were suitable, decide to resume the comprehensive negotiations, President Talat said the Turkish Cypriot side was spending efforts to materialize these issues, first the committees would be set up, start working and the two leader would meet from time to time.

Also evaluating the European Commission’s recommendation on Turkey, President Talat stated that this recommendation made Turkey’s EU membership process dependent on how much concessions it would give to the Greek Cypriot side and put the Greek Cypriot side’s demands as a precondition for Turkey’s EU bid.

Considering this as "a very odd situation", the President said: "This has proven that the EU has become a captive of the Greek Cypriot side", and added that this was "unacceptable".

Referring to EU Commissioner For Enlargement Olli Rehn’s speech saying that "the Cyprus problem should immediately be settled comprehensively within the UN framework", Talat said Rehn’s words was a strong message to the Greek Cypriot side who had been striving to shift the Cyprus issue to the EU platform.

President Talat drawing attention to the fact that the latest developments had both positive and negative effects, said the negative effect was that the Greek Cypriot side’s demands were put as a precondition for Turkey’s EU bid and the positive effect was the EU had realized that the final solution was to reach a comprehensive settlement on the Cyprus issue.

President Talat also referring to Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen’s visit to Turkey stated that this visit was directed towards the continuation of Turkey’s EU process without interruption.

Pointing to the fact although the meeting between Vanhanen and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan would not be directly related with the Cyprus issue, President Talat said some proposals, apart from the Finnish proposal regarding Cyprus, could be discussed during the meeting.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Turgay Avcý considering the recommendation of the EU Commission as “unfortunate” stressed that holding Turkey responsible was a very wrong stance.

Following is the statement issued by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Turgay Avcý yesterday (30 November):

"The EU Commission has taken a decision as regards to the accession negotiations of Turkey to the effect that "as long as Turkey does not fulfill her obligations", no chapters be provisionally closed and that 8 out of 35 chapters be suspended. We consider this decision of the EU Commission as unfortunate.

Holding Turkey responsible for the current impasse in Cyprus, which in fact is the consequence of the rejectionist policies of the Greek Cypriot side, is a wrong stance.

The EU has, until today, not implemented its decision of 26 April 2004 concerning the lifting of the isolations imposed upon the Turkish Cypriot people. The EU’s commitments made to the Turkish Cypriots have always been hampered by the Greek Cypriot side. Instead of eliminating the obstacles created by the Greek Cypriots, the EU has opted for taking a position of not keeping its promises. While the EU is expected, in line with its April 26 decision, to engage in efforts towards lifting the isolations, strengthening the Turkish Cypriot economy and supporting a comprehensive settlement in Cyprus, it is incomprehensible that it has preferred to further complicate the impasse in the Cyprus issue by imposing preconditions related with the Cyprus issue to Turkey’s accession process.

Furthermore, with this decision, the Commission has linked the Cyprus issue with Turkey’s membership process holding Turkey responsible for achieving a progress in the Cyprus issue and thus relieving the responsibility of the Greek Cypriot side in this process. This is the most detrimental stance that could be adopted in Cyprus. We have been expressing the adverse consequences of such a stance for a long time. We are observing with regret that the EU Commission has bowed to the pressures exerted by the Greek Cypriots and allowed to be manipulated by the Greek Cypriot rejectionist policies.