“It is a shame that the European Union was unable to enforce even its own decision of April 2004, on lifting the international isolation of the Turkish Cypriot People”.

This was the view expressed by Denis Macshane - the British Foreign Office Undersecretary for European Affairs in his remarks published yesterday in the British press.

The Undersecretary reminded that the EU foreign ministers had reached agreement on opening the ways for direct trade with North Cyprus in April 2004 in which he himself was also a participant.

He said it was shameful that the powerful EU member states failed to implement their own decision to remove the international isolation of the Turkish Cypriot People.

As for Turkey’s EU membership process, he warned that the exclusion of Turkey from the Union would be a very dangerous game, adding that Ankara can no longer express a stronger wish for membership.

 “Turkey has other alternatives in the Mediterranean or in the Middle East in case its EU membership bid fails, and such a development can harm the EU interests” he said, warning that it will be a great loss to leave Turkey out.

Noting that ‘Turkey wakes up almost every month to find a new hurdle on its path to Europe’, the British Foreign Office Undersecretary said Turkey will continue rejecting the normalization of its relations with the Greek Cypriot Side if this situation persists.

He also questioned how far Turkey can look for the West as a secular, democratic and Muslim country instead of looking eastwards in this situation.