Posted by D from 92.52.26.24.cfl.rr.com (24.26.52.92) on Thursday, May 29, 2003 at 8:00PM :
The Minister of Communications and Works, Mr Kikis Kazamias, reiterated yesterday the Cyprus Government's proposal for the opening of air routes that had been arbitrarily shut by the Ankara air control centre after the 1974 Turkish invasion.
The aforementioned proposal was put forward during the war in Iraq, when Turkey had closed some of the air routes used by the Civil Aviation.
Turkey, Mr Kazamias noted, could open up the air routes as a sign of good will within the framework of the developments over the recent weeks.
The Cyprus Minister further said that he had been authorised by President Papadopoulos to ask, at the forthcoming informal meeting of the EU Transport Commercial Navigation Ministers, for his counterparts' backing in the Cyprus Government's request for the lifting of the embargo on anchoring ships bearing the Cypriot flag at Turkish ports.
He also stressed that if Turkey continued to veto the anchoring of ships bearing the Cypriot flag, it would mean that the 25% of the European Union's fleet could not be serviced at Turkish ports. "A country that aspires to become an EU member cannot prohibit the anchoring of ships belonging to a member state", Mr Kazamias added.
-- D
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