The North Cyprus leader, Mr Rauf Denktash, has suggested that Ireland submitted to "blackmail" by the Greek Cypriot government and Greece when the Government earlier this year withheld permission for tourist flights to his politically isolated republic. He hoped the Department of Enterprise's decision would be "looked at again".
Mr Denktash said that Ireland's application to be a member of the United Nations Security may have been "the leverage which Greek Cypriots and Greece used as a blackmailing tactic". The Government said that it took the action because of its obligations under UN Security Council resolutions on the Cyprus question.
Mr Denktash went on: "But if every country submits to blackmail then where is Europe going to be?" The Turkish Cypriot leader was speaking to The Irish Times at a reception on Saturday to celebrate the 28th anniversary of the 1974 "peace and freedom intervention", known to the world as the Turkish military invasion.
The celebration is an annual event, this time attended by three Irish TDs, politicians from Georgia, France, Germany, Azerbaijan, Palestine and almost 100 journalists and academics. The Turkish Cypriot leader's reception came after he had reviewed an annual parade that included military hardware, veterans of the 1974 invasion, as well as helicopter and F103 fighter fly-overs.
The "direct" holiday flights were to have avoided a lengthy stop-over in London but not another in Turkey. International flights cannot land in the TRNC because of its unrecognised status, under IATA rules. "What we asked of Ireland and what was agreed was nothing different to what has been happening for years through London, Istanbul, Cyprus," said Mr Denktash.
"We have these flights regularly and also from Germany. So nothing out of the ordinary was asked of Ireland. But because of Greek Cypriot trouble-making and blackmailing I suppose - if there is nothing else in it - the Irish Government suddenly suspended permission. We are very upset because we look upon the Irish people as our friends, real friends," he said.
"So we don't understand why this has happened. The Greek Cypriots, if you allow them, will put us under continuous embargo even for breathing oxygen in Cyprus. It is a human right to travel, to be in contact with other countries. Just because Greek Cypriots have hijacked the title of the government of Cyprus they are not entitled to make all these things against us," said Mr Denktash.
As a fifth round of face-to-face talks gets under way between Mr Denktash (78) and the octogenarian President Glafcos Clerides of the Republic of Cyprus, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) remains unrecognised by the world community, except Turkey.
Asked if he saw any analogy between the Northern Ireland peace process and the secret talks with Mr Clerides, the northern leader said in Ireland, religion was a cause of division. "Here everything divides us." The TDs attending the week's events were Mr Sean Power and Mr MJ Nolan of Fianna Fáil and Mr Jack Wall of Labour. They felt that the flights issue to Nothern Cyprus ought to be "looked at again".