FOREIGN MINISTER AVCI RECEIVES ISESCO DELEGATION
AVCI: “5 UNIVERSTIES IN THE TRNC HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED TO THE UNIVERSITIES FEDERATION OF ISLAMIC COUNTRIES”
ALTWAIJRI: “ILLEGAL AND UNNECESSARY ISOLATION SHOULD END”

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Turgay Avcý announced that 5 universities in the TRNC have been accepted to the Universities Federation of Islamic Countries.

Foreign Minister Avcý yesterday (11 February) held a joint press conference with the delegation of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) which is one of the most important institutions of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC).

The Directorate General of the ISESCO Dr. Abdullaziz Othman Altwaijri stressing that the TRNC was an important part of the Islamic world said they attached importance to improving cooperation and relations with the TRNC. Altwaijri pointed out that they would also meet with President Mehmet Ali Talat and visit the universities within the framework of their contacts in the TRNC.

Noting that their visit will create them an opportunity to learn more about the situation in the TRNC, Altwaijri said the delegation will prepare a report about their findings at the end of their contacts in the TRNC and present it at the forthcoming OIC meeting in March.

Emphasizing that “illegal, inhuman and unnecessary isolation should end”, Altwaijri said the problems with regard to Cyprus could be settled on a legal framework and through negotiations without a need for the isolation. He added that they supported the Turkish Cypriots’ just cause.

For his part, Foreign Minister Avcý reminded that the TRNC Foreign Ministry had carried mutual contacts with many institutions, associations affiliated to the OIC Secretariat as well as the organization’s member countries in 2007.

Avcý pointed out that intensive studies were being carried out for continuing the reciprocal visits with the aim of further developing the existing relations between the OIC and the TRNC and to make the voice of Turkish Cypriots to be heard more effectively in the member countries of the Organization.

Foreign Minister Avcý stated that the visit by Dr. Altwaijri and his delegation has once more put forward the support of the OIC and its institutions for helping to end the unjust isolation on the Turkish Cypriot people and for the country to take its rightful place in the international community.

Avcý stressed that the relations and cooperation with ISESCO were very important in terms of promoting the Turkish Cypriot cultural heritage in the island as well as to notify the world about the fact that the Islamic cultural heritage in South Cyprus was being systematically destroyed.

Explaining that Dr. Altwaijri had spent so much efforts for the acceptance of the 5 universities in the TRNC to the Universities Federation of the Islamic Countries, Avcý said: “The membership of our universities to the Federation, which is accepted as the ‘Bologna process’ of the Islamic world, will increase the number of students coming from the OIC member countries to the TRNC universities”.

Noting that Altwaijri and his delegation would visit the universities in the country and meet with the universities’ officials in order to discuss the ways of improving relations between the TRNC and the OIC member countries in the field of higher education, Avcý said they would carry out joint projects with the ISESCO in the fields of culture and education.

Responding to a question Foreign Minister Avcý said: “The TRNC and Turkey have put forward a joint foreign policy and the aim of this policy is to find a just, permanent and comprehensive solution to the Cyprus problem within the framework of the UN and on the basis of political equality under which Turkey’s guarantee will continue.” Avcý added that however the Turkish Cypriot side would not wait for another 40 years at the negotiation table and the TRNC would continue its studies towards opening to the world.

 

 

 

FERRY SERVICES BETWEEN GAZIMAGUSA AND LATAKIA START AGAIN
FOREIGN MINISTER AVCI: “THE SERVICES WILL BE CARRIED OUT BY A SHIP CARRYING THE TURKISH FLAG”

 

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Turgay Avcý announced that the ferryboat services between the Gazimagusa and Latakia ports which was suspended as result of the Greek Cypriots’ pressures, have resumed yesterday (11 February).

Speaking during a joint press conference held with the ISESCO (Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) delegation yesterday, Foreign Minister Avcý stated that the ferry services, which had been organized by Akgunler Firm with a ship carrying the Georgian flag and were halted after the intervention of the Georgian authorities under pressure from the Greek Cypriot side, have resumed yesterday with a ship carrying the Turkish flag.

Avcý noted that the Akgunler Firm has received all the necessary permission from Turkish authorities to launch the services with a ship carrying the Turkish flag. He added that the studies to get a permission for a second bigger ship was continuing and this ship would start services in summer.

Stressing that the ferry services between Gazimagusa and Latakia would continue despite all the blockings by the Greek Cypriots, Avcý said yesterday’s sailing started at Girne Port, instead of Gazimagusa, as the ship was docked there, for the Syrian city of Latakia, but added that the ferry services would continue between Gazimagusa and Latakia as it was in the past.

 

 

 

IDENTIFIED 5 TURKISH CYPRIOT MISSING PERSONS TO BE HANDED OVER TO THEIR FAMILIES

 

5 Turkish Cypriot missing persons whose remains have been found during the exhumations in South Cyprus and identities have been identified are to be handed over to their families. A military funeral will be held for the Turkish Cypriot missing persons at the Lefkosa Martyr’s Cemetery on Friday (15 February).

According to the information received from the Association of Martyrs’ Families and War Veterans, the identified remains of Fehim Hüseyin and Kamil Hüseyin Kuţuri, who went missing in 1964, and Ahmet Cemal, Erdođan Enver and Ünal Adil who went missing in 1974, will be handed over to their families on Friday. A military ceremony will be held for 4 martyrs at the Lefkoţa Martyrs’ Cemetery on the same day and Kusuri will be buried in Tuzla on Saturday.

The Autonomous Missing Persons Committee announced that the total number of missing persons whose remains were identified after being found during the exhumations, has reached to 83. This includes 12 Turkish Cypriot missing persons whose identified remains have been handed over to their families lately.

According to the written statement issued by the Committee, new identity identification studies would be completed in the forthcoming weeks. The statement pointed out that a group from the bi-communal team of archeologists and anthropologists were carrying out studies in Yerasa region in South Cyprus to find the Turkish Cypriot missing persons and two groups from the team were carrying out exhumations in Girne and Mesarya in Northern Cyprus to find Greek Cypriot missing persons. The statement added that the Committee has recently carried out exhumations in Karpasha.