OIC Support for Cyprus is On the Way

Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) will call the member countries to take concrete steps regarding the removal of impositions on Northern Cyprus.

Foreign ministers in OIC are coming together in a Turkic republic for the first time. Turkish Foreign minister Abdullah Gul will stand for Turkey in the forthcoming 33rd session of OIC meeting to be held in Baku on June 19-21.

In the meeting, Turkey will seek support for two resolutions addressing the situation of Muslim minorities in Cyprus and Western Thrace.

Foreign ministers of Muslim countries are expected to adopt these resolutions. OIC will call its member countries and the international community for a halt to isolations on Northern Cyprus.

The meeting will also recommend the continuation of top-level visits to Northern Cyprus and establishing contacts with Cypriot Turks in the fields of tourism, culture, transportation, information, investment and sports.

OIC will repeat calls to Greece to protect the rights and identity of the Muslim Turkish minority in Western Thrace.

Meanwhile, Ankara considers that the Greek side should abandon the preliminaries it offered for the immediate launch of technical committees in Cyprus.

While Gul points out that the first offer for establishing committees was made by the Turkish Cypriot President Mehmet Ali Talat, he said: “We are not against the initiation of technical talks. As far as I see, there are some preconditions brought and some difficulties faced. We expect the committees without preliminaries will start and work more beneficially.”

The committees will be formed to address issues of health, environment, water management, waste management, money laundering, crime prevention, traffic security and humanitarian cooperation.

Turks.US Daily News