Papadopoulos says won’t block Turkey EU bid

With or without a peace settlement, the internationally recognised Greek Cypriot part of the island will join the EU next May. This could torpedo Turkey’s own EU ambitions.

"We are a small country. We do not have the power to push the EU about. We want Turkey to be an EU member, provided of course that it behaves like a European country," Papadopoulos said in an interview with Turkey’s liberal Radikal newspaper.

Every EU enlargement can go ahead only by unanimity, so Cyprus — probably backed by Greece — could in theory block any decision to open accession talks with Turkey. Ankara hopes EU leaders will make such a decision at a summit in December 2004.

"I want a solution (to the Cyprus problem) before we join the EU," Papadopoulos said.

Papadopoulos said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s peace plan for Cyprus could still work if Turkey and Denktas reconsidered. The plan envisages broad autonomy for the two communities within a loose federation.

Talks on Annan’s plan fell apart in March, and many European diplomats and the U.N. blamed Denktas.

Papadopoulos accused Ankara of wanting to "keep its finger" on Cyprus, 40 miles from the Turkish coast. He said Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan — seen in Brussels as a pragmatist dedicated to bringing Turkey closer to the EU — seemed to share Denktas’s thinking on the issue.

Turkey keeps some 30,000 troops in northern Cyprus, which is recognised as a state only by Ankara.

In a symbolic gesture, Denktas recently relaxed curbs on movement of people north and south of the ceasefire line dividing the island, where two thirds of the 750,000 population are Greek Cypriots.