ISTANBUL - Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Serdar Denktas called on the Organization for Islamic Conference (OIC) to accept TRNC as ''Turkish Cypriot State'' and as full member of the organization.
Denktas who delivered a speech on Tuesday in the general assembly of the 31st OIC Foreign Ministers' Conference in Istanbul said that he hoped that international community and OIC to respond to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's call in his report, to take necessary steps and help unjust embargoes imposed on Turkish Cypriots to be lifted.
Referring to Annan's report, Denktas asked OIC to have relations with Turkish Cypriots in every field. ''We are calling you to give us much effective role and much influential support. We call on OIC to replace our name with 'Turkish Cypriot State' and replace our status of observer with status of full member,'' he noted.
Denktas stressed that although Turkish Cypriots voted in favor of the Annan plan in referenda held on the island on April 24, they were not included in the European Union (EU) and they were still continuing to live under embargo. He said, ''we hope international community and OIC to extend efforts for lifting this unjust embargo.''
(EÖ-AÖ) 15.06.2004