Turkey will not respond to Cyprus deadline

Turkey’s foreign minister today said there would be no response to deadlines on the Cyprus problem, a day after the European Union warned Turkey that it must speed up efforts to resolve the stalemate.

“Issues like Cyprus cannot be solved by blackmail or setting deadlines,” said foreign minister Abdullah Gul.

Finnish prime minister Matti Vanhanen, whose country now holds the rotating EU presidency, said time was running out for Turkey and that its membership bid faced “an uncertain future” if the Cyprus problem remained unsolved.

Turkey refuses to open it ports or airports to Cyprus, an EU member, demanding that an international embargo imposed on Turks in the North of the island be lifted first. Turkey has 40,000 troops in the North and props up an ethnically Turkish government there that is not recognised by any other country in the world.

EU government leaders are to hold a December 14-15 summit that will assess whether membership talks can continue, a conclusion that will be based in part on a recommendation of the EU’s executive Commission, which could be made as early as December 6.

The intransigence on both sides has always threatened to derail Turkey’s bid for EU membership, more so after Cyprus joined the union in 2004.

Gul said he was still hopeful diplomacy could resolve the problem. He said he would go to Helsinki, Finland, on Sunday for talks on Finland’s plan to address both sides’ concerns.

“The Finnish are spending great efforts to resolve the issue and we are supporting them,” Gul said. “If a solution can be found, we would gladly say yes.”