Talat seeks end to northern Cyprus isolation

In the plush surroundings of Brussels’s Conrad hotel, Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat looked alert and confident at the start of a three-day visit this week. But he brought a tough message that avoiding a Turkey-EU crisis this autumn is unlikely and that chances of success in the last-minute attempts by the Finnish presidency to mediate between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots to open up northern Cyprus’s ports are low.

This will be a less than welcome message for his interlocutors in Brussels, who included Commission President José Manuel Barroso, European Parliament President Josep Borrell and Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn. But Talat is somewhat upbeat: "It is going to a crisis, [but] crises in general have the possibility of creating a new environment…so that clash could cause important progress."

Talat says that his main message for Barroso, Borrell and Rehn is: "We want an unconditional lifting of the [Turkish Cypriot] isolation because this is not a subject of bargaining." He refers to commitments in 2004 by the EU and calls by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to end isolation - when the Turkish Cypriots voted ‘Yes’ and the Greek Cypriots ‘No’ to the Annan plan to reunite the island.

But to Talat’s disappointment, "the international community and the EU started to make elements of isolation some elements of a bargain, so this is not fair".

"I want to insist that the chance of the Finnish presidency is not very high …the Finns are asking the Turkish Cypriots to give many things to the Greek Cypriots in order to get what the EU promised."

Talat doesn’t believe the Turkish government will pressurise him to do a deal on ports with the Greek Cypriots: "If Turkey opens ports and airports to the Greek Cypriots, Greek Cypriot rapaciousness [will not] end with these concessions…any democratically elected [Turkish] government cannot move in the direction the EU is asking, so seemingly it is a futile effort of the EU."

The first tranche of EU funds for northern Cyprus was finally agreed two weeks ago, after a Greek Cypriot attempt to block the funds in July. But Talat insists that "funds have nothing to do with the isolation". For him, political isolation is as important as economic isolation. "Turkish Cypriots should be represented by Turkish Cypriots, they can’t be represented by the Greek Cypriots," he says.

Despite Turkish Cypriot frustration at their isolation, Talat believes there is no big increase in nationalism or in support for the divisionist policies of former leader Rauf Denktash. "We are still keeping our people with us but for how long I don’t know. Will it be indefinitely? I don’t think so."

Talat refers back to the demonstrations of late 2002 and early 2003, a time when he was opposition leader, when a third or more of the Turkish Cypriot population were on the streets, waving EU flags and demanding an end to Denktash’s separatist policies: "It was a democratic insurgence of the people…there was frustration regarding the ongoing propaganda by Mr Denktash and people were frightened…of not being able to join the EU."

He says that despite the disappointments, "the public are still in favour of the EU" and the right-wing parties, though pro-separatist, unlike his pro-settlement left-wing Republican Turkish Party, "are not anti-EU…or don’t dare to say it".

Talat rejects charges that he himself has become more nationalist and says he is worried at rising nationalism on the Greek Cypriot side. He says the main Greek Cypriot opposition party Disy, who have been consistently for the Annan plan, "is somehow trying to assert itself as more nationalist" and expresses disappointment with Greek Cypriot Communist Party Akel, currently in the coalition government, which "served nationalism more than others".

This does not point to positive mood music for UN attempts to restart talks between the two sides. In July, the UN brokered the first meeting in two years between the Cypriot leaders, Talat and Tassos Papadopoulos, and since then has been pushing for technical talks - which are mired in political disagreements. Talat says that he wants to start talks as soon as possible but that the Greek Cypriot side is trying to postpone the negotiations: "They want to do academic studies on all issues which are the substance of the Cyprus problem."

There is little in what Talat says to suggest the EU-Turkey "train-crash" can be avoided this autumn but he remains optimistic: "The crisis might lead to important changes and might lead the international community and the EU to understand the importance of the solution of the Cyprus problem."

• Kirsty Hughes is a freelance journalist based in London.

In the plush surroundings of Brussels’s Conrad hotel, Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat looked alert and confident at the start of a three-day visit this week. But he brought a tough message that avoiding a Turkey-EU crisis this autumn is unlikely and that chances of success in the last-minute attempts by the Finnish presidency to mediate between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots to open up northern Cyprus’s ports are low.