Erdogan: Cyprus Embargo to be Lifted

In addition to revealing that the Turkish delegation received positive signals on lifting the embargo, Erdogan also emphasized that he was worried about a postponement of the solution in Cyprus due to the general elections in Greece. Erdogan pointed out that the elections should not be used as an excuse and added: “This business has a priority. We have to treat this as if it were an emergency. We have elections as well in March, but you don’t see us using them as an excuse.”

Erdogan noted that the U.S. administration has an optimistic inclination for a solution in Cyprus by adding that the ‘facilitating’ element was not brought to the agenda as a condition. Diplomatic sources reportedly stated that a U.S. team consisting of U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Marc Grossman, Lynn Pascoe and U.S. Special Envoy to Cyprus Thomas Weston promised to involve themselves in the negotiations should a bottleneck happen to occur. It was also reported that the U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell advised the Bush administration to treat the issue with great care and not to let election year politics interfere with their approach.

At a question and answer session Erdogan was asked, “What would happen if the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s efforts cannot persuade Greece and the Cypriot-Greek side?” Erdogan replied, “We talked about it when we met with Mr. Prodi. If [the Greeks and Cypriot-Greeks cannot be persuaded], then no one has the right to be against Turkey and TRNC.”

Another reporter asked, “The main agenda of your visit was Cyprus and Iraq. Could you say that you scored a two out of two?” Erdogan replied using a football metaphor: “The 90 minutes are not over yet, but there are no worries. Ask me again after injury time.”

The Prime Minister also reassured his audience that the steps to be taken via Turkey in the ‘Enlarged Middle East’ project aimed at developing freedoms will reach positive conclusions.

At this point Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Ambassador Ugur Ziyal took the floor and said that Turkey adopts an approach of evolving the existing institutions in the Middle East instead of destroying them in order to realize democratization. Erdogan then chimed in that the most important critiques of the current US foreign policy are its authoritative stance and its unabashed willingness to use force. The Prime Minister was then asked, “Would the model you suggested be in harmony with the Bush administration’s politics?” Erdogan replied: “This is one method of approach. An intervening stance has high cost.”

Asked about whether or not the Iraqi Turkomen issue was touched upon, Erdogan reiterated his stance against a federation based on ethnicity or religion. Erdogan then used the opportunity to briefly mention the U.S. intervention in Northern Iraq in regards to PKK-KADEK groups. Erdogan said that he was pleased with the U.S. determination to fight against terrorism.

He also drew attention to a ‘first’ in the official meetings. “For the first time, a draft decision was submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate regarding the improvement of relations with Turkey. The Congress agreed to seriously evaluate the draft..”

Finally, in a speech he addressed to the Assembly of Turkish American Associations’ (ATAA) 24th convention, Erdogan called upon Turkish Americans to strongly integrate, but not assimilate, themselves into society, and become involved in politics. “You should be active in all civil society movements, by sharing the value of the country you reside in, you should live as integrated but not assimilated,” said Erdogan.