Turkey Urges EU and Greece to Abolish Embargo on Turkish Cyprus

Foreign Ministers of EU member and candidate states discussed EU policies on Meis and Rhodes islands of Greece, and then headed to EU candidate Turkey’s Kas that is only a few hundred metres (yards) from Meis.

"The EU membership is Turkey’s first priority," said Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul on the way from Kas to Meis, before the ministers Kas meeting.

"We will discuss the EU membership process at a special session of Parliament next week. Since, the nongovernmental organizations should also make effort during this process," added Gul.

Meanwhile, Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou and Gul said in Kas that they had decided both states should simultaneously present the United Nations with accords they had ratified banning land-mines on the border between the two historic and often bitter rivals.

It was designed as both a gesture of friendship and to draw a line under hundreds of killings of illegal immigrants and other civilians by land-mines on the border.

Several mine-fields were created along the border decades ago when Greece and Turkey regularly came close to war and have remained despite a thawing of relations in recent years.

"Our common borders must be respected, but they must be borders of peace and collaboration," Papandreou, whose country is the current European Union president, told reporters.

"We said we will send the agreements on land-mines simultaneously to the United Nations which means they will then come into force immediately after that," Papandreou said.

Gul said, "It’s a wonderful idea that we realized this. Our countries will soon be free of mines."

Both countries ratified the land-mine agreements in 2001 but they needed to be presented to the U.N. to be formalized.

The ministers, whose countries have long been at loggerheads over several territorial disputes in the Aegean sea and the divided island of Cyprus, went for a walk together through the narrow cobbled streets of Kas.

Papandreou, widely credited for helping improve relations between the neighboring states in the past three years, was earlier greeted with cheers when he arrived in Kas.

The ministers agreed it was in everyone’s interests to back fresh U.N. negotiations on Cyprus, a week after KKTC President Rauf Denktas opened up border crossings for Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots after almost 30 years.

The opening of the borders on Cyprus increased the mutual confidence said Gul responding to a question on Cyprus and urged the EU to abolish the embargo on KKTC as soon as possible.

"Turkey may also abolish the embargo on the Greek Cypriot side afterwards," added Gul.

"We hope that negotiations will start soon and that there will be a solution, but a satisfactory one for both sides," Gul said.

The United Nations failed to get a peace deal in place before the internationally-recognised Greek Cypriot part signed an EU accession treaty last month.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkish forces made a military operation on the northern third of the island in response to an Athens-backed coup designed to unite it with Greece.

EU ministers continued to discuss common EU foreign and military policies on the Greek island Rhodes on Sunday with the attendance of Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul.