Turkey may freeze relations with the European Union for the duration of Cyprus’s presidency of the organization, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.
Cyprus, which Ankara does not recognize, will assume the EU presidency in July 2012.
“Nobody should expect us to sit at the same table with South Cyprus during its EU presidency,” Erdogan said during a visit to the northern Turkish part of the island. The visit came on the anniversary of Turkish military intervention in the island on July 20, 1974.
"There is no such state as Cyprus. There is southern Cyprus and there is the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,” he told a crowd of about 2,000 people who greeted him at the airport.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkey invaded the north in response to a military coup on the island backed by Greece. Turkey is the only state that has recognized the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state.
Reunification with its richer neighbor is seen as the solution to the economic problems of northern Cyprus, which has an annual budget deficit of nearly $1 billion, covered by Turkey.
The reunification issue is crucial for Turkey. The country started EU entry talks almost five years ago, but Cyprus has repeatedly used its EU membership to hamper Turkey's accession efforts.
