Shipping ban

[cannedmoose]

A good article explaining the position on Turkey's ban of Republic of Cyprus ships.

http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main.php?id=21836&cat_id=1

What's perhaps most interesting is that this ban hasn't existed since the break-up of Cyprus in the mid-1960s, it's only been in place since 1987 (probably linked to Cyprus' signing of the Cyprus-EU customs union back then, which Turkey vehemently opposed). So for Turkey to say that it's a recognition issue is quite frankly a non-starter, given that Republic of Cyprus ships could, at least legally if not practically, call at Turkish ports between 1960 and 1987.

As Kazakos says, although Cyprus is only a small member state, in shipping it is second (at least I thought it was 2nd on the latest numbers I saw) only to Malta and therefore has a significant place in determining Turkey's progress on the Transport chapter of the acquis. I think it's inevitable that Turkey will have to drop its restrictions, and it would have been to Turkey's advantage to do so without causing a fuss over it. Had it just signed and agreed without making pronouncements on Cyprus aircraft and shipping rights, I doubt anyone would have even noticed the change. Turkey is mistakenly backing into a corner of its own making and the further it backs into that corner, the more difficult it will be to walk back out of it without being humiliated.

[brother]

I think Turkey should open its ports to the Cypriot ships and planes, financially the incentives are huge and it will make not one bit of difference to the current cyprus situation and if anything show the EU that they(turkey) can think outside the box and act in the spirit of the EU and then start to make demands from the Republic of Cyprus for its restrictions on the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and push them(Republic of Cyprus) into the post referandum corner that tassos likes to put cyprus into.

[cannedmoose]

[brother]