Thirty-five years after the Mediterranean island was split in two, Cyprus remains divided because of "belligerent" behavior on behalf of Turkey, the Cypriot ambassador to the United States said Thursday. The Greek Cypriot government is engaged in the most advanced meetings to date with northern Cyprus' Turkish leader as the two attempt to hammer out a solution that appeals to both Greek and Turkish Cypriots, Ambassador Andreas Kakouris told reporters and editors at The Washington Times. But Turkey's 43,000 troops on the island thwart the prospects of a solution, Mr. Kakouris said. "We need Turkey, Ankara, on board," he said of the Turkish government, which backs the Turkish enclave in Northern Cyprus. "'What you win with the sword, don't give up with the pen' - Turkey regrettably still uses this old adage," the ambassador said. "It's another example of the belligerent posture of Ankara." President of the Republic of Cyprus Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat have been meeting weekly since September. They are seeking a solution in which a central government would represent both ethnic communities, with the presidency rotating between Greeks and Turks. The talks began by discussing government and power sharing and have moved toward property, the economy, the European Union and other issues, he said. Cyprus is a member of the EU, but its Turkish community is denied many benefits of belonging to the 27-nation bloc. Turkey has been in negotiations to gain EU membership since 2005 and Mr. Kakouris said Cyprus, an EU member since 2004, supports Turkey's membership, but Ankara's relationship toward Cyprus damages Turkey's chances of becoming a member. "You can't cherry pick what you like about the EU and what you don't," he said.
European interior and justice ministers meeting in Stockholm yesterday agreed to boost funding for Greece and other member states guarding the EU’s external border and called on Turkey, as an EU candidate state, to cooperate with the bloc’s efforts to curb illegal immigration. Notwithstanding the common criticism of Ankara’s stance and the pledge to increase funding, with an initial tranche of 12 million euros earmarked for Greece, the summit reached some discouraging conclusions. The revision of the Dublin Regulation, which stipulates that migrants apply for asylum in the first EU member state they enter and has resulted in disproportionate pressure on Greece and other southern EU states, will not be considered until 2014. The decision to postpone tweaking the regulation, which has been the subject of widespread criticism, has driven a wedge between southern and northern EU member states. However, EU ministers were virtually unanimous in their support for boosting funding for overburdened member states on the EU’s external border. The European Commission’s Vice President and Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot reportedly agreed to extend the European Refugee Fund to apply to all incoming migrants, not just those meriting asylum. As a result, several million euros in aid will be set aside for Greece and other Mediterranean states to spend on additional reception centers, food and medical supplies and social support for migrants. Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlo-poulos took the opportunity to stress to his EU counterparts that guarding the bloc’s borders was an EU affair, not a purely Greek problem and to demand the cooperation of Turkey as a key transit state. “If Turkey fails to take action it becomes a haven for traffickers and a gathering point for illegal immigrants,” Pavlopoulos said.
Iceland could jump the queue ahead of countries from southern Europe and become the next to join the European Union, slowing reforms and fuelling discontent with the accession process in other applicant states. Iceland's parliament on Thursday narrowly backed the government's plan to begin talks to join the 27-nation bloc. Iceland is well placed for quick accession because of its long democratic tradition and membership of the European Free Trade Association and European Economic Area trading groups, meaning it is already in line with most conditions for joining. If voters agree to seek membership in a referendum and talks go well, political analysts say Iceland could join by July 2011 -- before Croatia, which had been expected to be the next member despite a border row with Slovenia that has stalled its drive. Elsewhere in the Balkans, Serbia's membership bid has been blocked by the Netherlands and Macedonia's bid has been blocked by a row with Greece over its name. Bosnia's bid is held up by internal bickering and diplomats say Germany has held up consideration of Albania's application. Turkey began membership talks in 2005, but its drive has been stalled by a row over the divided island of Cyprus and opposition from countries such as France to the large and predominantly Muslim state joining the Union. Diplomats said that although few experts expected a return to combat in the former Yugoslavia, there was a risk that disillusionment with the EU would increase in countries that saw no visible progress in their accession bids. "We may be in a scenario in which reform stagnates and a soft nationalism returns in some countries -- arguably it already has in Bosnia and Macedonia -- and there is not the improvement in governance we would like to see coming through the EU accession process," the EU diplomat said. Another EU diplomat said it was important for EU states to take into account the sensitivities of countries with existing EU bids when dealing with Iceland's. "We must be careful not to isolate or annoy those countries with pending applications. This cannot be seen as a two-tier system for richer and poorer countries. We must insist on a level playing field," he said. A third diplomat said it remained unclear whether Iceland's bid would be discussed at the next meeting of EU foreign ministers on July 27 but it would be important to bear in mind the sensitivities of other membership applicants.
At one of its next sessions Serbia Government shall adopt decision for centralized issuance od passports for the citizens of Kosovo and Metohija. That is one of the conditions set by the European Commission. Centralized issuance of the so-called Kosovo passports does not mean only their issuance in Belgrade exclusively but it also means that the complete documentation from re-located Kosovo secretariates of home affairs now scattered throughout Serbia, is collected at one location. ’Serbia has fulfilled all of the required conditions and now it is only necessary to make certain administrative steps’, Drazen Maravic, Chief of burreau for international cooperation and European integration of the Home Ministry says for ’Blic’. ’What we have to do is to implement in full the Law on foreigners and adopt detailed strategy for migrations. The strategy for fight against illegal migrations and the strategy for fight against human trafficking have been adopted earlier’. Maravic says. Serbia also has to secure financial and other resources for implementation of the legal frame for fight against organized crime and corruption. The rest of the activities refer to Kosovo and Metohija. ’It is necessary to intensify supervision of the administrative border including exchange of information with the EULEX. Significant progress in that field has been already made. We also offered a text of the protocol on police cooperation as a practical frame for this operational cooperation and we expect it to be signed soon’, Maravic said. ’Serbia shall for sure fulfil all of the remaining requests so that its citizens can travel to the EU countries without visas as of the beginning of 2010’, Maravic concluded.
Nearly a year after Georgia’s war with Russia, Abkhaz leader Sergei Bagapsh is determined that Tbilisi will never rule his land again. Shrugging off international calls for Georgia’s territorial integrity to be respected, Bagapsh said the West needed to come to terms with his Russian-protected Black Sea statelet. “Abkhazia will never again be a part of Georgia. We are building an independent state, and have no intention of going anywhere,” he said. Following the five-day war [August 2008], when Russian troops crushed a Georgian land and air assault on South Ossetia, Russia recognized both rebel territories as independent states — a move followed so far only by Nicaragua. Although the West has so far refused to acknowledge Abkhaz independence, Bagapsh said he still wanted dialogue. “We are not asking for any help from the West. We are asking only for understanding, understanding that there’s no going back,” Bagapsh said in an interview, conducted late Wednesday [15 July 2009]. Abkhazia’s dilapidated seaside capital, paint flaking from villas that were once the playgrounds of the Soviet elite, still bears the scars of 1990s fighting between Abkhaz separatists and Georgian forces. The torched shell of the former communist offices stands gathering weeds, and ruined homes are fenced off in the heart of Sukhumi. By agreement, Russia has taken charge of securing the region’s borders. Several thousand Russian soldiers are stationed here, and the Russian military is building a naval port south of Sukhumi and an air base to the north. Russian tourists stroll the seafront, the ruble is the currency, and Russian the lingua franca. Russia is almost the sole source of aid and trade. In the aspiring country of 200,000 people — many holding Russian passports — some are asking whether Abkhazia has simply swapped Georgian rule for government from Moscow. “We must understand one thing — no country in the world is absolutely independent,” Bagapsh said in his seafront office. “They [the Russians] are protecting us, our children. For 15 years we’ve been living not knowing whether war will start tomorrow or the day after,” he said. Bagapsh rejected renewing talks with the government of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who has faced an emboldened opposition since the war. “Today, the leadership of Georgia is an aggressive leadership, whose hands bear the blood of Abkhaz and Ossetians,” he said.
Israel President Shimon Peres will visit Russia in mid-August at the invitation of Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, the president's office in Jerusalem announced on Friday. "President Peres will meet President (Dmitry) Medvedev on August 18 at his summer residence on the Black Sea as part of a working visit," a presidential spokeswoman said. With the visit in mind, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Thursday briefed Peres on talks he had held with Medvedev in Moscow in June, foreign ministry spokesman Tzahi Moshe told AFP. Lieberman had reiterated at that meeting that he was "not opposed" to Israel's participation in a Middle East conference which Russia wants to stage in Moscow, "on condition that (Palestinian group) Hamas and (Lebanon's) Hezbollah are kept out," Moshe said. "Israel will not agree to take part in such a conference if Hamas or Hezbollah are represented in a direct or indirect way," he added. Hamas, which rules the Gaza enclave, and Hezbollah both advocate armed struggle against Israel.
The Union of Orthodox Church Banner-Bearers announced a contest for the project of a Church of New Russian Martyrs and Confessors in the Red Square to replace Lenin's Mausoleum. "Revival of Russia is impossible until the occult lab for destroying will and conscience of Russian people remains in the very heart of Moscow "the Third Rome." To this end, the Mausoleum should be destructed, body of the world proletarian leader should be taken away, this place should be consecrated and an Orthodox Church should be constructed at this place," the Union's Head Leonid Simonovich-Nikshich has told an Interfax-Religion correspondent on Friday. He has already presented the first contest project and suggested building a small copy of Yekaterinburg Church-on-the-Blood erected at the site of the last Russian emperor's execution instead of "the main world Satan temple." Simonovich-Nikshich said that the contest started on July 17 on the day of the 91st commemoration "of the ritual murder of the holy royal martyrs," thus the future church in place of the mausoleum should be consecrated in honor of "the assemble of new Russian martyrs and confessors suffered from atheistic rule."
"Sooner or later, God providence will destroy the Satan temple. Meantime, we should get ready for laying the first stone to the foundation of finally awaken Russia," he said.
The Union's website will present all projects for nation-wide discussions and due to the participants wish authors may comment them "for explaining their conception."