Brussels, 19/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - Greek Foreign Minister Georges Papandreou hopes an agreement for Cyprus will be rapidly concluded. Answering questions put to him by the Reuters Agency, he said he felt there is a "good chance that we shall make the process move forward" during the Greek EU Council Presidency. In answer to questions raised by Le Figaro, he assured that "except for Rauf Denktash (President of RTCN), there is a political determination to settle the matter on all sides. Things are moving as they have not done for 28 years when division of the island began. We must keep our hope up".
The Turkish Foreign Minister had announced, on Wednesday, in a press release, that Turkey does not agree, "either on the legal plane or politically" with the decision taken by the European Council in Copenhagen to integrate the island into the EU on 1 May 2004. The spokesman for the Turkish government declared that, from now on, they expect the Greek Cypriot authorities to behave in a positive manner. Turkey, he said, as in the past, will support the Turkish Republic of northern Cyprus under the leadership of Rauf Denktash.