Antenna: News in English (PM), 98-03-13

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From: Antenna Radio <http://www.antenna.gr> - email: antenna@compulink.gr

Last Updated: Friday, 13-Mar-98 18:48:49

CONTENTS

[01] E.U conference

[02] Spyridon-Clinton

[03] Kosovo

[04] Karamanlis-Soccer

[05] DEI - Florina

[01] European Union conference

Glavcos Clirides's invitation comes in the face of vehement Turkish opposition to EU accession talks with Cyprus starting before Turkey itself joins the EU.

Observers say the Cypriot president's move, which came following international pressure, puts the pressure on the Turkish side.

Glavcos Clirides's invitation to the Turkish-Cypriots to send delegates to join his negotiating team when the EU accession talks start on March 30th, could be a boost to Cyprus's prospects to join the EU soon, but also to the search for a solution to the Cyprus problem.

Under British, French and US pressure to bring the Turkish-Cypriots into the talks, Clirides offered to let them sit on equal terms with the Cypriot government, and even choose their own representatives. The only condition is that they cannot present themselves as representatives of a state, but only as members of a community.

The conference in London of the 15 members and 11

candidates was thought up in December as a way of showing Turkey - which was invited to attend - that while it isn't up for EU membership now, the EU wants close ties with it.

British prime minister Tony Blair responded very favourably to Clirides's offer, and the pressure should now be on Denktash to accept.

But the British also raised concerns over Cyprus's plan to deploy Russian air-to-ground missiles this year, over Turkish objections.

And Dutch EU commissioner Hans van den Broek asked Greece to lift its veto over EU funds earmarked for Turkey.

Greece has blocked the funds until Turkey complies with EU directives to improve its human rights record and relations with Greece, and make a genuine effort to solve the Cyprus problem.

Ankara's response to that directive, and the EU's decision in December to go ahead with Cypriot accession talks as planned, was to say it could see no point in any further political dialogue with the EU. Turkey thus refused the invitation to take part in the current conference.

French president Jacques Chirac, who appears to be championing the Turkish- Cypriot side, expressed regret over Turkey's absence.

He said that while Cypriot accession talks will start this month, only the whole of Cyprus should become an EU member.

Greek prime minister Kostas Simitis also said he was sorry that the Turks weren't in London. Especially, he added, since it was Ankara's refusal to accept the rule of international law and respect Greek rights in the Aegean was the cause of the rift with the EU.

Any nation that wants to get closer to Europe, continued Simitis, must follow the same code of behaviour that all EU members accept.

In London, Simitis rejected Turkish foreign minister Ismail Cem's proposal that Cem and his Greek counterpart meet in Ankara to start

quote an organised high-level dialogue, unquote.

It is not the first time Greece has dismissed a Turkish offer of dialogue on all the issues between them. Athens sees it as a ploy by Ankara to get all of Turkey's claims on Greek rights in the Aegean onto a negotiating agenda.

Simitis repeated that the only bilateral issue Greece sees as legitimate is that of rights over the continental shelf in the Aegean. He added that he expects to see proposals on the substance of problems, and not more attempts to make impressions on the international community.

"Greece has had experience in the matter of dialogue with Turkey", said Simitis. "similar remarks about dialogue from Turkish officials in the past have led nowhere".

[02] Spyridon-Clinton

The president welcomed orthodox archbishop of America Spyridon to the White House, in a salute to Greek independence, which is marked later this month.

At the annual reception, Spyridon and other leading members of the Greek community in the US had the chance to express their views on a number of issues of importance to Hellenism.

They expressed their worries about the permanent Turkish threat in the Aegean; they talked about the need to guarantee the religious freedom of the ecumenical orthodox patriarchate in Constantinople, and said the orthodox seminary of Chalkis, closed by the Turks, should be allowed to reopen.

One of those at the reception was Greece's European Union commissioner, Christos Papoutsis. He was impressed by the warmth with which the American leader referred to Greece.

Papoutsis added that his presence in the Oval office in his EU capacity, is proof that Greece isn't just the small country that gave the world the light of civilisation; it is also a nation to be reckoned with.

[03] Kosovo

Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, and the USA have agreed to impose sanctions on Serbia.

Western nations have condemned the use of violence on both sides, and counselled dialogue as the best way ahead.

Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo may have buried 53 people killed by the Serb special forces in last week's assaults on Drenica - ostensibly directed at militant separatists. But their feud with Belgrade has not been buried.

Despite appeals from the international community, ethnic Albanian leaders were rejecting Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevich's offer of dialogue to work out the tensions in the relations between Belgrade and the ethnic Albanian majority of Kosovo.

As hundreds of schoolgirls protested in Pristina, holding candles in memory of the Drenica dead, ethnic Albanian leaders called the Serbian offer of talks and a high degree of autonomy for Kosovo a farce, a public relations exercise to ward off the threat of western economic sanctions.

Adem Demaci, who has spent decades in Serbian jails, said the Serbs are asking to talk to them like lords to their servants. Demaci is gaining in popularity on more moderate ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova.

But even Rugova snubbed the Serb delegation. He said "The only acceptable solution for us is independence, and not some form of autonomy".

Throughout the crisis, Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevich has responded to international censure and threats of sanctions by saying Kosovo is a domestic problem and no international meddling is called for. But his rush to start talks, and his offer of autonomy, is seen as an attempt to avoid punishment at the hands of the West, which has given him until March 25th to resolve the problem.

Milosevich may now be willing to talk about autonomy, but will not countenance independence for Kosovo.

But ethnic Albanian leaders appear to be banking on Western support in driving as hard a bargain with him as they can.

The US and other Western powers say Milosevich's claim that his operations against the ethnic Albanians were directed at what he calls the terrorist Kosovo Liberaton Army, is unsatisfactory as a justification for the killings last week.

US president Bill Clinton said during am meeting with the UN secretary general, "We don't want to see any more pictures like those of recent days". Kosovo, he added, is all to reminiscent of Bosnia.

While it's putting pressure on Belgrade, the international community is not talking about military intervention, at least not yet.

Noteworthy is the fact that UN security council member China responded to a French appeal for solidarity with the ethnic Albanians, by saying that Kosovo is a matter of domestic Yugoslav politics.

[04] Karamanlis-Soccer

Karmanlis was injured in a friendly soccer match with other New Democracy and PASOK MPs Wednesday.

Doctors said the operation was successful and that the leader of New Democracy was in good spirits.

Karamanlis convalesced Thursday with his fiancee Natassa Pazaiti and family members at his side.

His hospital room packed with flowers, the nation's main opposition leader received get-well messages from the prime minister, former president Konstantinos Karmanlis his uncle, and New Democracy honorary president Konstantinos Mitsotakis.

Karamanlis begins physiotherapy on Friday and is expected to leave the hospital Sunday at the latest.

Doctors said he needs to walk with crutches but may return to his political duties as early as the middle of next week.

As for another soccer match....that may have to wait for at least two months.

[05] DEI - Florina

In Florina, Vaso Papandreou lashed out at those who had opposed the project on the grounds that it was too expensive.

Welcomed with rose petals, Papandreou said, "All those representatives of special interest groups who thought they could play games with a Pasok government, and prevent us from doing our work, should be here today".

New Democracy's spokesman called Papandreou's triumphalism "unbelievable. She and the prime minister haven't paid for the project out of their own pockets", he said, "but with taxpayers' money".

(c) ANT1 Radio 1998

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