EU Minister says Cyprus has worries over Turkey’s role in Syria

Cyprus said Monday after taking up the rotating EU presidency that it was concerned over Turkey’s attitude to events in Syria but would continue to work with Ankara over the conflict.

Cyprus said Monday after taking up the rotating EU presidency that it was concerned over Turkey’s attitude to events in Syria but would continue to work with Ankara over the conflict. “As a country we have worries on the way Turkey deals with the Syrian crisis,” Cypriot Deputy European Affairs Minister Andreas Mavroyiannis told a news conference. “We fear how Turkey deals with this issue because there is on the part of Turkey a kind of instrumentalization,” he said during a presentation of his country’s aims during its six months at the EU helm. But he insisted that “as the [EU] presidency we will work with all parties in order to promote peaceful transition to democracy in Syria.”

Mavroyiannis said there were many communities in Syria to take into account, “including Christian minorities”. He also said “we need to be very cautious to respond to what people want there and not to sacrifice minorities”. Ankara decided last year it would boycott the EU presidency when Cyprus took over from Denmark on July 1, due to the decades-old conflict over the eastern Mediterranean island. 

Turkey, currently run by an Islamist-rooted government since 1974, has occupied the northern third of the island and only the Republic of Cyprus is recognised by the international community. Ties between Ankara and Damascus – close until last year’s uprising erupted against President Bashar al-Assad – are at an all-time low following the downing of a Turkish fighter jet by Syria June 22. In an interview with AFP last week, the Cypriot foreign minister said Nicosia was ready with its European partners to evacuate third party nationals from Syria. “We are only 100 kilometers from the shores of Syria and Lebanon. Anything that goes wrong there will affect us,” said Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis. She also warned that if potential refugees and asylum seekers do not come by boat and sea, “they will come through the occupied areas and this is our biggest problem right now with asylum seekers.”

02.07.2012
SOURCE: CUMHURIYET ENGLISH

2 July 2012