Turkey, Greece cancel maneuvers in Cyprus

The deal came at a meeting on Monday between Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and his Greek counterpart Petros Moliviatis in New York, on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meetings.

The two ministers agreed to cancel annual maneuvers in the Mediterranean slated for October "in line with good neighborly relations and as part of their determination to contribute to the existing atmosphere of confidence," a joint statement read by Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said after the half-an-hour meeting.

Athens and Greek Cyprus had planned to stage their annual Nikiforos-Toxotis military exercises in October in the Greek part of Cyprus. Turkey was to hold its own Cyprus exercise, code-named Toros, in the north of the island also in October. The maneuvers were to involve air, ground and naval forces.

The two countries did not hold the maneuvers last year either, as part of a rapprochement process that has buried most of the enmities that have plagued relations in the past.

The sides also canceled military maneuvers in the Aegean Sea during the 2004 Olympics in Athens this summer. Gul said the sides agreed Monday to further strengthen confidence-building measures in the Aegean.

Turkey and Greece have been holding consultative talks over the recent years, discussing confidence-building measures in the Aegean. Territorial disputes in the Aegean have brought the two countries to the brink of war three times in the past but the situation has drastically improved after a devastating quake in western Anatolia in 1999 created an outpour of sympathy between the two archrivals.

Strong support for EU bid
The two neighbors have since launched cooperation in a number of areas and the Greek government has announced strong backing for Turkey’s bid to join the EU. At Monday’s meeting, Moliviatis told Gul that Greece’s support was not an emotion-ridden one, on the contrary, was based on a solid strategic decision.

"Greece will continue to support Turkey’s EU accession even if all other 24 members oppose it," Moliviatis told Gul at the meeting, Anatolia news agency, quoting Turkish diplomatic sources, said.

Turkey’s EU membership will be in the interest of not only Turkey and Greece but for Europe and Turkey’s region, he told Gul.

On Cyprus, Moliviatis said Greece was backing an initiative undertaken by the Netherlands, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU, to end international isolation of Turkish Cypriots after they voted in support of a U.N. reunification plan.

"We want economic standards of the Turkish Cypriot side to be improved. We believe this will be good for an extensive solution," Moliviatis told Gul, according to Anatolia.

In New York, Gul is also lobbying for support for Turkey’s bid to get a seat at the U.N. Security Council in 2009-2010. Diplomatic sources said Moliviatis was positive on Turkey’s request for backing.

Gul was scheduled to hold talks with his Palestinian, Jordanian and Egyptian counterparts. Meetings were also scheduled with foreign ministers of Israel, Portugal, Italy and the Netherlands.