Cyprus stalemate threatens Turkey's EU membership bid talks

Cyprus’ insistence that the EU pressure on Turkey towards establishing relations with the divided island’s government today threatened to derail Ankara’s first detailed negotiations to join the EU before they could begin.

In Luxembourg, Cypriot foreign minister George Iakovou said there was “no progress” in the stand-off between his country and the rest of the EU at the weekend, with Cyprus still insisting the EU must remind Turkey of its obligation to normalise relations with Nicosia and include it in a customs union with the 25-nation bloc.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said it was still not clear whether the talks on science and technology – the first of 35 policy chapters to be negotiated – would start and finish today as scheduled.

“I hope that will be the case,” he said.

The issues themselves were considered uncontroversial and straightforward, but Nicosia was objecting to the phrasing of an EU text setting out the bloc’s common policy which was to be presented to Turkey before the talks.

Cyprus also insists that the negotiations continue for more than one day, saying that a swift conclusion to the first chapter would indicate Turkey’s progress toward joining the EU was free of problems.

Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said foreign minister Abdullah Gul and other Turkish officials would not travel to Luxembourg if Cyprus did not lift its demands.

“If there is no positive solution, if the 24 members will go along with Greek Cyprus, then certainly neither my foreign minister nor my chief (EU) negotiator will go,” Erdogan said.

Erdogan said Turkey had undertaken all obligations to conclude the science chapter.

“If, however, their approach is a political one, then our position will be different. If they smear the talks with politics then that is our position,” he said.

Slovenian foreign minister Dimitrij Rupel said the EU must “do its job” and stick to its word to complete the talks as originally planned.

“We’re opening and closing these chapters provisionally anyway, nothing is decided until everything is decided. This is a very innocent chapter. I hope whatever has been agreed upon will be respected,” Rupel said.

Turkey’s entry negotiations with the EU formally began last October and are expected to last at least a decade.

Cyprus has been split into an internationally-recognised Greek Cypriot south and a Turkish-occupied north since a 1974 Turkish invasion sparked by a coup in favour of union with Greece.

Ankara does not recognise the Greek Cypriot-led government in Nicosia, but supports the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state.

Nicosia insists that before Turkey’s entry talks can start, the EU demand that Ankara extend its customs union to include Cyprus and nine other member states that joined the bloc in 2004.

Although Turkey signed an agreement last July extending its customs union to include the EU’s 10 newest members, it has not implemented the deal. To do so would require Ankara to allow Greek Cypriot ships and planes to use Turkish ports and airports, which it refuses to do until a crippling international embargo on the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state is lifted.

Ankara has not indicated whether it will consider any concessions.

But Cyprus has little to lose since it joined the EU, and appears to be willing to increase pressure on Turkey. A UN peace plan to reunify the island was rejected by Greek Cypriots but supported by the Turkish north.