Turk Cypriots hand UN list of settlers who can stay

Turkish Cypriots have handed to the United Nations a long list of names of settlers from mainland Turkey who would be allowed to stay in Cyprus in the event of the island's reunification, officials said yesterday.

Turkish and Greek Cypriots are preparing for simultaneous referendums on April 24 on a UN peace plan which envisages a reunited Cyprus joining the European Union on May 1. The plan allows up to 45,000 people of Turkish origin to stay on Cyprus.

"There are almost 41,000 names on our list. This means all settlers can stay," said Huseyin Ozel, an official in Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Talat's Republican Turkish Party (CTP).

Greek Cypriots say the permission for Turks who have settled in the north of the divided island to stay, part of the plan hammered out recently in marathon UN-brokered negotiations in Switzerland, rewards Turkish "aggression".

Cyprus has been split on ethnic lines since Turkish troops invaded the north in 1974 after a brief Greek Cypriot coup which aimed to unite the island with Greece. The Turkish settlers have moved to the island since 1974.

Mr Ozel told Reuters the list did not include a further 11,000 mainland Turks married to Turkish Cypriots or an undisclosed number of children born on the island to Turkish settlers. Both groups will also be allowed to stay in Cyprus.

An opinion poll conducted earlier this month and published in the Turkish Cypriot magazine Nokta at the weekend showed 63 per cent of Turkish Cypriots would vote 'yes' in the referendum and 17 per cent 'no'. About 19 per cent were still undecided.

In the wealthier, Greek-speaking south of Cyprus, opinion polls suggest the plan will be rejected by a large margin.

If this happens, only the internationally recognised Greek Cypriot part of the island will enter the EU next month, deepening the isolation of the Turkish Cypriot statelet which only Ankara recognises and possibly harming Turkey's own EU bid.

A Greek Cypriot 'no' vote looks even more likely after the largest Greek Cypriot political party, the communist AKEL, said on Saturday it would only back the UN plan if the April 24 referendum were postponed.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul swiftly rejected the Greek Cypriot call for a delay.

Ankara fears that without reunification the Greek Cypriots will veto any move by the EU to open entry talks with Turkey. EU leaders are due to decide in December whether to take this step.

The international community has urged both sides to accept the UN plan but has little leverage over the Greek Cypriots, who are assured of EU membership from May 1.

Hoping to bolster the 'yes' camp, the EU is organising an international donors' conference in Brussels on Thursday to help raise aid for reconstruction, especially in the poorer north.

A Turkish official said yesterday that Ankara expected participants, who will include the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), to pledge a total of around one billion dollars in aid.

But the monies will only be disbursed if both sides vote for the UN plan allowing reunification to go ahead.