ISTANBUL - Prime Minister Dervis Eroglu of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) said on Monday regarding EU Commissioner for enlargement Guenter Verheugen's and U.S. State Department Special Coordinator for Cyprus Thomas Weston's visit to Cyprus, ''they can visit the island, of course. But the important thing is that they should be objective while seeking ways of compromise and they should not implement double standards.''
Eroglu who wrapped up his one-week visit to Turkey left for the TRNC with a Turkish Cypriot Airlines (KTHY) plane.
Prior to his departure from Istanbul's Ataturk Airport, Eroglu answered questions of reporters.
When asked what he thought about Verheugen's and Weston's visit to the TRNC, Eroglu said, ''there has always been a traffic in Cyprus. Now the EU puts pressure, and the United States sends representatives under its request for resumption of talks, which reaches the point of pressure. They can come, of course. But the important thing is that they should not be biased and they should be objective and they should not implement double standards.''
When asked whether or not those visits' aim was to bring Annan's plan onto the agenda again, Eroglu said, ''Annan personally requests several commitments from both sides to revive his document and have the sides sit at table again. As the both sides do not make such commitments, it is impossible to claim that talks on Annan's plan would start at the moment. However, it is supposed that several movements also toward Turkey would happen after visits of Verheugen and Weston. After that, we have to put forward an attitude. We are working on it.''
When asked what he thought about Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's proposal about the TRNC's membership to the Organization of Islamic Conference, Eroglu said, ''it is a quite appropriate demand. We made such demands also in the past. However, I suppose that Mr. Prime Minister Erdogan's making such a demand in Malaysia personally is important for the future and realization of our rightful demand.''
Eroglu came to Ankara on June 9 and had meetings with Erdogan and Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul.
During his visit to Turkey, Eroglu was decorated with the ''Politician of The Year'' award by the Politics Magazine. Later he held a conference on ''Future of Cyprus'' in Trabzon, and he attended activities of two non-governmental organizations in Istanbul.
(MS-AÖ) 16.06.2003