Annan urges Cyprus leaders to preach reconciliation TDN with wire dispatches Ankara- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's invitation to direct talks on the Cyprus issue scheduled to take place between July 9-13 reached both leaders of the divided island on Wednesday, the Anatolia news agency reported. Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktas said he welcomed the invitation letter. Annan had asked earlier on Tuesday for the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders to promote tolerance and reconciliation after

Reuters Athens- The Greek Parliament adopted the European Union's Schengen open-border pact on Wednesday despite a rebellion by opposition deputies and an all-night vigil outside by protesters including many priests and nuns. The 300-seat house voted 142-80 -- 78 deputies were absent - for the pact, which already has seven full members including France and Germany. Schengen, which provides for border controls between EU member states to be removed and for increased cooperation on police matters, was

Reuters Nicosia- Two soccer friendlies between clubs from the Greek Cypriot community and the Turkish Cypriot community, the first in more than 40 years on divided Cyprus, have been called off. "There was a conflict in the procedure of organizing the two matches. The matches have been suspended for a later date," a Greek Cypriot F.A. source told Reuters. The friendlies were to be held at the prompting of international football federation (FIFA). Greek Cypriot team AEL was due to play Turkish

The Republic of Cyprus, founded in 1960, was not a unified state but a political partnership between the two main Cypriot communities each of which retained its own language, religion, and cultural traditions Negotiations under the auspices of the UN to form a new bizonal federal republic began in 1975, and practically every sort of possible federal arrangement has been discussed in considerable detail A crucial, though frequently neglected, point is that agreement has been made even more difficult by a

Gilman's international relations committee said to hold the frigatesBy Ugur Akinci / Turkish Daily News Washington - If the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms of North Carolina had his way, Turkey would receive its stalled order for three FFG-7 Perry-class frigates in no time.But the U.S. House International Relations Committee, chaired by the New York Republican Benjamin Gilman, is sitting on the order, according to a new story published in Defense News. The transfer of the

Financial Times says Holbrooke has eye on Aegean dispute as wellBy Ugur Akinci / Turkish Daily News Washington- Richard Holbrooke, President Clinton's new special envoy to Cyprus, has called attention to the escalating pressures in Cyprus telling the Financial Times (FT) that the standoff on Cyprus "could explode at any time, bringing into direct contact two NATO allies, Turkey and Greece." The two NATO allies came close to exchanging blows in January 1996 after the friction over the

Unfair: 'Treating the Greek Cypriots as the official government and treating us as a community cannot be reconciled with the principle of equality,' TRNC leader says TDN with wire dispatches Ankara - President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Rauf Denktas postponed on Monday his scheduled talks with Britain's special envoy to Cyprus, Sir David Hannay, protesting what he called unequal treatment of the island's two communities. "Treating the Greek Cypriots as the official

The two-day Balkan foreign ministers' meeting was held alongside a meeting of economic, trade and industry delegations from the same states on mutual cooperation TDN with wire dispatches Foreign ministers from Balkan states opened two days of talks in the Greek port of Salonika on Monday, stressing the need to close ranks to gain European Union and NATO membership. Ali Tuygan, deputy undersecretary of the Turkish Foreign Ministry, representing Turkey at the Balkan foreign ministers' meeting, claimed

Schengen: Accord calls for border controls between EU member states to be removed, and for increased cooperation on police matters Reuters Athens- The Greek Parliament is set to adopt the European Union's Schengen open-border pact today despite objections from a number of individual deputies and leftist and religious groups, officials said. "The Schengen pact will be adopted on Wednesday (today). Both the ruling socialists and the main opposition conservatives back it. We expect some leaks but it

A bloodless solution with Iraq From a June 10 article by Hurriyet's Mumtaz Soysal: Let us admit that the Turkish foreign policy's biggest failure in the past six years is that Turkey could not make Washington see that Turkish interests regarding Iraq are quite different from the American interests regarding that country. Now, with the ongoing Turkish security operation in northern Iraq which goes all the way to the 36th parallel, Turkey and the Baghdad administration once again have a de facto common

TDN with wire dispatches Ankara - Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktas described Britain's special envoy to Cyprus Sir David Hannay's remark on Sunday that "There is more common ground between the two sides on the divided island than either cared to admit," as "surprising." Hannay said earlier that neither side was willing to make commitments on any specific issue before the other side had committed itself on another issue. After he held his weekly meeting with the Turkish Republic of

Turkish Daily News Ankara - The meeting of the Balkan foreign ministers started Monday in Salonika, Greece with the participation of seven countries: Albania, Bulgaria, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Greece, Romania, Turkey and Serbia. Foreign Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Ali Tuygan is representing Turkey. the deputy undersecretary of the Foreign Ministry, At the beginning of the meeting, Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis expressed Greek support for the countries in the region to become

Holbrooke upsets everybody From a June 9 article by Sabah's Mehmet Ali Birand: President Clinton's appointment of Richard Holbrooke as his personal envoy for Cyprus has come as a surprise. The Greeks and Greek Cypriots promptly applauded the decision and underlined the importance of Washington tackling the Cyprus problem. But in reality Athens is uneasy mainly because the Washington element has emerged when the Cyprus issue was being tackled primarily in a European Union (EU) context. They know that

The geographical distribution of the population isn't the same [as that of 1990] anymore and the distribution of seats in Parliament doesn't reflect the territorial distribution of the electorate. Besides, there are always those who haven't been recorded on the electoral lists Some European Kurdish organizations claim there are 25 million ethnic Kurds in Turkey... The last time a question on mother tongue was asked was in 1965, and 2.3 million people declared their mother tongue to be Kurdish. Let's

Turkish Daily News Electronic Edition, 'Editorial' by Ilnur Cevik, June 9 1997 9 June, 1997, Copyright © Turkish Daily News The shooting down of our helicopters by separatists in northern Iraq has turned into a fight over funds at home and a war of accusations on the international front...Editorial by Ilnur Cevik The separatist terrorist organization PKK must really be rejoicing over the fact that it has not only shot down two Turkish military helicopters in northern Iraq, but it has helped to

TDN with wire dispatches Greece, Armenia and Iran over the weekend denied any support to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in reply to Friday's statement by Secretary-General of General Staff Erol Ozkasnak. General Ozkasnak said on Friday that PKK terrorists had used sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles to shoot down two army helicopters in northern Iraq. "Since 1992 the PKK has wanted to get hold of SA-7 missiles. We have informed the Foreign Ministry five times that it is primarily the

The meaning of the tension From a June 8 article by YENISAFAK's Ibrahim Kiras: Military officials had first said the two helicopters had crashed in northern Iraq due to a technical fault. Now they say these were downed by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) using SA-7B missiles of Russian make, and that countries such as Syria, Iran, Greece, Serbia, the Greek Cypriot southern Cyprus and Armenia had helped the PKK to get such missiles. This could come to mean that all our neighbors have joined

TDN's Editorial by Ilnur CevikPKK and its friends should be very happy The shooting down of our helicopters by separatists in northern Iraq has turned into a fight over funds at home and a war of accusations on the international front... The separatist terrorist organization PKK must really be rejoicing over the fact that it has not only shot down two Turkish military helicopters in northern Iraq, but it has helped to cause a domestic as well as international row because of the way the affair was

Croatian Ambassador Dr. Ivica Tomic and his elegant wife hosted a reception in the Croatian Embassy gardens to mark Croatian National Day. Turkish President Suleyman Demirel sent a congratulatory message to the President of Croatia, Frajo Tudjman, and Ankara hosted its own share of National Day ceremonies attended by a number of people from Ankara's diplomatic circles, as well as military attaches. The main topic of conversation was, predictably, the crisis in government and possible solutions after a

Albright refers to "so-called Cyprus problem" and stresses that Cyprus is an "intercommunal problem" Differences remain on Russian SA-10 missiles. Cassoulides: "We paid downpayment to Russia to prove that we mean business"By Ugur Akinci / Turkish Daily News Washington - The 40-minute meeting on Friday between Greek Cypriot Foreign Minister Iaonnis Cassoulides and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright at the U.S. State Department once again demonstrated how difficult