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ANKARA: Swoboda: Papadopoulos Should Meet With Talat

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  • ANKARA: Swoboda: Papadopoulos Should Meet With Talat

    SWOBODA: PAPADOPOULOS SHOULD MEET WITH TALAT

    The New Anatolian, Turkey
    Nov 1 2006

    European Parliament Socialist member Hannes Swoboda yesterday called
    on Greek Cypriot Tassos Papadopoulos to show more willingness to meet
    with Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat on a regular basis to
    make progress in solving the Cyprus problem.

    Commenting on EU Term President Finland's recent efforts for Cyprus
    talks in Helsinki but disagreements on the format of the meetings,
    Swoboda said that it was natural that Turkish Foreign Minister
    Abdullah Gul was invited to these talks and further said it was more
    meaningful at this stage to continue these talks on the level of
    foreign ministers.

    "Papadopoulos should show more eagerness to meet Talat on a regular
    basis," Swoboda said, showing uneasiness with the Greek Cypriot
    leader's long reluctance to have direct, face-to-face talks with
    the Turkish Cypriot leader. Swoboda underlined that Papadopoulos
    politically had relatively a stronger position and expectations from
    him to make steps forward were much higher.

    The socialist MEP underlined that there will be a need weeks before
    Dec. 15, when the EU will decide on Cyprus and Turkey's accession
    process, for Papadopoulos to head talks that aim to overcome the
    controversy.

    Asked to comment on Turkey's request from Finland for Greece's
    participation in these talks, Swoboda said this was not necessary
    and in fact could more complicate the process.

    The MEP also underlined that while EU has not fulfilled its promises
    yet to Turkish Cypriots to put an end to their isolation, Turkey's
    opening its ports to Greek Cypriots was a legal obligation and was
    not directly related with the issue of isolation.

    Socialist members of the European Parliament Jan Marinus Wiersma
    and Pasqualina Napoletano together with Swoboda called on Turkey
    to make progress in reforms and their implementation, underlining
    that it was necessary to change the image of Turkey in Europe. The
    deputies, at their press conference at the EU delegation in Ankara,
    stressed that the controversial Article 301 of the penal code is
    unacceptable and should be changed, independent from discussions of
    French Parliament and its move to make it a crime to question claims
    of an Armenian genocide.
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