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Roundup: Cyprus not intend to consent to open Turkey's EU negotiation chapters: president

Xinhua, March 16, 2016 Adjust font size:

Cyprus poured cold water Tuesday on suggestions by European Union officials to open chapters of Turkey's EU accession negotiation in return for Ankara to check the flow of refugees and migrants into Europe.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said after talks in Nicosia with European Council President Donald Tusk that it was unacceptable to shift the burden of responsibility for the migration crisis on his shoulders and the shoulders of the Republic of Cyprus.

"I conveyed to President Tusk our position that the Republic of Cyprus does not intend to consent to the opening of any chapters, if Turkey does not fulfill its obligations as described in the Negotiating Framework and the Ankara Protocol," Anastasiades said during a joint press conference with Tusk in Nicosia.

Turkey withheld recognition of Cyprus since it occupied the northern part of the eastern Mediterranean island in 1974, in reaction to a coup organized by the military rulers of Greece at the time.

Since the 1974 occupation, Ankara maintained that Cyprus has become an "extinct" state, despite the fact that the island continued to be a UN member and also became an EU state in 2004.

During negotiations in Brussels on the migration crisis, Turkey demanded that in addition to financial assistance and the freeing visas for Turkish nationals the European Union should unblock five chapters out of a total of eight chapters blocked by Cyprus and other EU members, including Germany and France for reasons related to Turkey's policies of Cyprus.

Anastasiades said that Cyprus is fully aware of the problems faced by EU member states in connection with the flood of migrants and refugees from war zones.

But he stressed that Turkey had stubbornly refused since 2004 to fulfill its commitments regarding Cyprus and that was the reason why the European Council unanimously approved in 2006 the freezing of eight negotiation chapters.

He said nothing has changed since then in Turkey's policies.

Tusk dismissed reports that he had come to Cyprus to exert pressure on the government to consent to the unblocking of the chapters.

"I am here to listen to your positions ahead of the EU Council this week," he told President Anastasiades.

Tusk is scheduled to travel later in the day to Turkey for consultations on the issue of migrants.

He said that the rules for the accession by Turkey have not changed and the same strict conditionality will apply and the approval of all 28 member states will be required.

"No third country can ever be more important to me than any of our member states," Tusk said in relation to Turkey's demand for the opening of negotiation chapters.

He added that the European Union is a block of 28 member-states and that Cyprus is as important as Germany, France, the Netherlands or any other member-state. Endit