BY ZEYNEP GURCANLI
STAR- The steps taken by Turkey for the solution of the Cyprus issue, the approval of the referendum by the Turkish side and the atmosphere of sympathy for Turkish Cypriots, etc. were all positive developments. However, they weren’t enough. The EU member Greek Cypriots took their time and the sympathy towards Turkish Cypriots and tendency towards helping them ended. Finally Greek Cypriots started to create problems for Turkey. Turkey will host a new meeting of religions and cultures on October 3-4 with the participation of the foreign ministers of 56 countries from the Organization for the Islamic Conference (OIC) and EU member countries. Turkey sent invitation cards to foreign ministers of all countries but Greek Cypriot administration which doesn’t recognize Turkey officially. However, Greek Cypriots turned this incident into a campaign against Ankara and this situation caused a crisis between Turkey and the EU. The Greek Cypriot administration emphasized its official EU membership and wanted EU term president the Netherlands to warn Turkey. The Netherlands warned Ankara that it wasn’t appropriate to exclude one of the member countries and the solution of sending invitation cards as a whole was found. So Turkey prepared a new invitation card instead of the ones it sent to EU member countries and sent this new one to the Netherlands to be delivered to the EU member countries. Then the Netherlands sent this new invitation card to all 25-member countries, including the Greek Cypriot administration. So Turkey invited Greek Cypriots, which it doesn’t recognize, to the meeting in Istanbul, where the Greek Cypriot administration will participate as the ‘Cypriot Republic.’
What’s worse is that then the Greek Cypriot administration tried to cause the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’ (TRNC) exclusion from the same meeting. The TRNC had the status of observer at the OIC. However, its status increased at the OIC foreign ministers meeting which was held in Istanbul in June and the OIC recognized it as the ‘Turkish Cypriot state’ there. Naturally, it was invited with this title to the meeting in Istanbul in June. Now Greek Cypriots don’t want the TRNC to be invited with the title of a state and they’re trying to convince the EU not to invite the TRNC with the title of a state. Shortly, the Cyprus issue is getting more complicated. Greek Cypriots are using their EU membership against Ankara. The diplomatic war with Greek Cypriots has just started and Turkey, which is trying to get a date for membership negotiations in December, might face a surprise.