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Cyprus examining possibility of Turkish becoming official EU language

Xinhua, January 22, 2016 Adjust font size:

Turkish may become one of the official languages of the European Union even before Turkey concludes any accession agreement.

Cyprus is contemplating the possibility of asking EU to include Turkish in its official languages as under its constitution both Greek and Turkish are official languages.

Government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides has confirmed a report in a Turkish daily that President Nicos Anastasiades informed Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci at their latest negotiating session about his intention to look into that possibility.

The paper said the move was a good will gesture by Anastasiades towards Turkish Cypriots and Turkey.

"The Republic of Cyprus, as an EU member state, is examining the possibility of asking EU institutions to add the Turkish language - which is an official language of the Republic of Cyprus - to EU languages," Christodoulides told the Cyprus News Agency in Davos Switzerland, late Wednesday.

He added that Anastasiades has asked competent authorities to look into this possibility.

Anastasiades and Akinci are currently working on an agreement to reunify Cyprus, split along ethnic lines when Turkey occupied its northern one third in 1974, in reaction to a coup inspired by the military rulers of Greece at the time.

They had a joint meeting with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Davos, on Thursday.

They also made an unprecedented appearance at a special session of the Davos Economic Forum, appealing to the international community for economic assistance to finance the cost of a solution.

Offhand estimates put the cost at about 24 billion euros (26 billion U.S. dollars). Endit