LEFKOSA - TRNC President Rauf Denktas said on Wednesday that the issue of opening of new border gates for free passages between TRNC and Greek Cypriot side, was continuously on their agenda.
Denktas said that opening even one border gate was costly and that the issue of whether a new border gate was necessary or not was also important.
Upon questions of journalists asking if new border gates would be opened or not, Denktas said that the issue was continuously on their agenda. ''But each border gate is costly, nobody thinks about it. It is also an issue as to whether there is such a need or not.''
Denktas stated that they had earlier took initiatives at the level of U.N. for opening of Lefke border gate, but the U.N. Peace Keeping Force rejected that proposal saying that there were mines in the region. ''The issue can come to agenda in the future again if the region is cleaned off mines,'' he said.
When reminded about the Greek Cypriot news claiming that he rejected the proposals of Greek Cypriot side to open new border gates, Denktas said that ''there is no such thing, they continuously make up things to deceive the people.''
Denktas criticized some press organs during his speech, telling that ''it is our mission to respond to the side which uses freedom of press to remove our state.'' Denktas said that some press organs tried to ignore the important messages given by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullatif Sener upon July 20 ceremonies.
''This is not appropriate in journalism. The people don't deserve that. A newspaper which hide realities from people, who distort realities or who don't talk about realities can no longer be credible. The people don't deserve that, the mission of the press is not fulfilled by some of press organs. These press organs use the right to speak in order to deceive people and to make Turkish Cypriots be slave of the Greek Cypriot side. They do their best to help Greek Cypriots who try to eliminate the Turkish Cypriot state. Certainly the things told by U.S. Department of State's Cyprus Special Coordinator Thomas Weston to former British special representative to Cyprus Lord David Hannay are very important, but some of the press organs don't make public the things told by Turkish Prime Minister.''
Denktas said that he was criticized and accused of opposing to freedom of press due to his statements about the press, adding that ''this is not the case, we are the side which protect the freedom of press. But it is also our mission to respond to the side which uses freedom of press to eliminate the state. It is also our mission to show the press which serves Greek Cypriots by using freedom of press by eliminating the reliability, trust and self-respect of persons. Unfortunately a certain part of the press does that.''
(Öª-AÖ) 23.07.2003