Turkey’s Obligation

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin’s exclusive statements to The Cyprus Weekly may be an indication that France would like to play a more active role in resolving the issue of Cyprus.

Turkey must comply with its Cyprus obligations, says French PM

By Angelos Marcopoulos

Turkey has no option but to meet its obligation in connection with Cyprus and respect human rights it was stressed by French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and other senior European leaders in exclusive statements to The Cyprus Weekly during a series of political gatherings here.

``This year we shall see how Turkey deals with its obligations,’’ de Villepin said. ``The new year must be an active and useful one because France, and Europe, have to defend their values on human rights and peace in the world,’’ he added.

The French leader was replying to a question whether Turkey would be convinced to meet its own obligations to the EU in the coming year following the fact that the EU, and Cyprus, met all their obligations to it in 2005.

The question referred of course, to the repeated statements from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other senior Turkish leaders that Turkey will not apply the EU protocol demanding the opening of Turkish sea and air ports to Cypriot ships and aircraft.

Villepin’s position was made more specific in a subsequent statement to The Cyprus Weekly by the French Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei.

"They (Turkey) undertook commitments and they should respect them...In 2006 there will be a series of (EU) rendez-vous with Turkey on Cyprus,’’ he said.

It was significant that Villepin’s statement came shortly after the European Court of Human Rights issued a series of judgements condemning Turkey for gross violations of human rights, including murders, disappearances, torture, oppression of free speech, etc., which revealed that Ankara continues to show contempt to a CoE’s ministers’ resolution which vainly asks Turkey to cease tolerating grave crimes committed by its security forces.

De Villepin’s stance was fully backed by Rene van der Linden, the Dutch President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and Catherine Colonna, the French Minister for European Affairs.

"I hope that all involved will be wise enough to stick to agreements and meet all revelant expectations,’’ van der Linden told The Cyprus Weekly in response to a question dealing with Erdogan’s statement.

"They (Turkey) certainly "Have to apply’’ the extension of Custom Union to Cyprus was Colonna’s comment.

UN Resolutions must be fully implemented - Chirac

In another important statement for Cyprus this week French President Jacques Chirac said that all UN resolutions must be fully implemented.

Calling for a "new start’’ and the "relaunch of a political Europe, in a multipolar world", Chirac said that "France is determined to act more strongly than ever in order to find solutions to many conflicts".

This should be done "with due respect to law, and the law is not a variable geometry,’’ he said, stressing that "all UN Security Council resolutions must be fully implemented.’’

Giving further backing to Chirac’s words French Foreign Minister Douste Blazy stated that ``France’s ambition in 2006 is for the EU to play a political role in all efforts to settle conflicts.’’