FM Gul says interim derogation cannot be accepted

BUERGENSTOCK (AA) – Turkish Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said on Friday that a proposal of the European Union on "derogations" would be accepted in case it did not include risk, stating that it was impossible to accept a proposal that has possibility of changing in the future.

Speaking to reporters, Gul said the Turkish side intended to reach a mutual compromise and permanent agreement, stressing that the result should be incorporated into EU law to be permanent.

Gul said the EU would make its proposal on the issue and that this would be examined by the jurists, adding that it was impossible to accept a plan which had possibility of changing in the future.

Reminding the journalists that Turkish and Greek prime ministers would arrive at Buergenstock on March 29, Gul said, "I hope a document on which the sides recorded progress would be put in front of them."

When a journalist asked why the Turkish side was insistent on permanent derogations, Gul said they wanted the agreement, which would be reached, to be unchangeable for the two sides on the island. Gul said all the doors should be closed to any amendment to agreement and recalled the incidents before 1974 and the mass graves.

If the principle of bizonality is to be effective in Cyprus within the EU, a permanent derogation on freedom of movement and settlement in Cyprus would have to be part of EU law, and it will need to exclude mainland Greeks as well as Greek Cypriots. It will have to be for the two peoples themselves, not the EU by some arbitrary time limit or pre-arranged mechanism, to decide when that derogation is no longer needed.