Turkish Cyprus asks Ahern to suspend EU decision

The Turkish Cypriot premier has written to European Union officials, formally asking that Cyprus’s EU membership be temporarily suspended, the Turkish Cypriot news agency TAK reported.

Mehmet Ali Talat told TAK that he wrote to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern - as Ireland holds the rotating EU presidency – asking that EU laws not apply to the Greek Cypriot south until the island is reunified.

He also said he asked for €240m in aid earmarked for the island be released and that the EU end the Turkish Cypriots’ political and economic isolation by forging direct contacts with the Turkish north.

“The Turkish people of the north, where EU laws will not apply, have done their best for a solution, whereas the south has not done so,” Talat said.