Brussels, 23/02/2001 (Agence Europe) - Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash wrote to the Heads of Governments of EU Member states and the European Commission on 21 February asking them to use their influence so that "the unilateral EU membership process of the Greek Cypriot Administration does not proceed any further until such times as the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot peoples of the island reconcile themselves". Mr. Denktash states in his letter that he wishes "once again to emphasise the gravity of the situation engendered by the Greek Cypriot bid for EU membership, before the Greek Cypriot side is further encouraged on its expectation that it can be a EU member on behalf of 'Cyprus' and without final political settlement in the island".
Continuation of the accession process has "seriously undermined the UN process" in view of a settlement on the island, says Mr. Denktash, stating that the Turkish Cypriot part had participated in the UN-sponsored proximity talks "in good faith between December 1999 and November 2000", whereas the Greek part had, "at the fourth round of proximity talks held in New York, boycotted the talks in reaction to the UN Secretary General's opening statement of 12 December 2000". Mr. Denktash recalls that, Kofi Annan had then, in the fifth round of talks in Geneva on 8 November 2000, presented "Oral Remarks" that were not in line with the concept of "a new partnership" and "the equal status of the two parties". The Turkish part, he wrote to EU leaders, had therefore drawn the conclusion that "its justified views were being fundamentally ignored and that the process had turned into a vehicle by which its legitimate rights, existence and identity would dissipate in a predominantly Greek Cyprus, within the European Union", and that, for that reason, there was no purpose in continuing the talks unless the reality of the existence of two States was accepted through the acknowledgement of the Turkish Cypriot statehood.