Our adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....

I have received an interesting e-mail over the weekend and with the permission of the sender I reprint it here.

Dear Frank & Joan,

First of all, your website and stories have kept me up to date with the events on the island over the last three years.

I lived in the North for three years and consider it one of the best experiences of my life, the people, the culture and of course the weather!

However, having listened to my Turkish Cypriot neighbour ( here in Leeds ) for the last 20 something years, he is of the belief that a settlement will not come for a good few years- I have also quizzed his views on this and they are as follows:

The main reason why their will not be a settlement is the fact that sadly the EU ( mainly the French )do not really want Turkey ( Muslim State ) to become a member state, as you can imagine the influx of Turks, Kurds etc onto the already struggling Economies of Europe would put an incredible amount of pressure on public services etc.
In my opinion and having lived and worked with both Cypriots and Turks I think

is a great shame.
The Cyprus problem is one of the conditions that needs to be resolved before Turkey will be even considered to join the EU so this is a very long way off.

His personal view on the best way forward is the TRNC to go alone as a seperate state.( I agree with him )

The only hope in my opinion is with the United States,( or if the TRNC strike oil of the coast ) they need and are using Turkish airspace and land to keep and eye on the middle east, so I think they need to be brought to the table along with Israel and push for a recognition of the TRNC.

The Greek Cypriots don't want a settlement, they have what they want- EU membership and still have a big chip on there shoulders after the events of 1974 and they love playing the victims on the world stage, which is very annoying as if you speak to former UN soldiers or ex British servicemen pre 1974 they all say that the Turkish Cypriots were the ones that were been ethnic cleansed.....

All the events over the last couple of years with The Orams Case & Gary Robb have not helped the TRNC's reputation and prospects, and the road for the TRNC is going to be long and hard with any sort of recovery or confidence in the economy/property market especially difficult.

On the Orams, the TRNC made a mistake by appointing Cherie Blair as council, they fell straight into the Greek Cypriot trap as all of a sudden the case was national and international news because the UK's Prime Ministers wife was taking on such a case... Ego's became involved & sadly the Greek Cypriots got there way ( again )

Like everyone else who loves the Island, I sincerley hope that a settlement is reached that suits the real people that matter the Cypriot Communities ( both Greek & Turkish ) and global politics could be put aside.

Don't stop the site- it is very enjoyable!

It is interesting that this guys Turkish Cypriot neighbour has these views and I did go back to him and asked him to talk to his neighbour at length about pushing his local MP and MEP, to get up in parliament and start promoting the Turkish Cypriot stance and asking for the EU in particular to honour their promises.