Cyprus ready to evacuate Syrian refugees

Cyprus, which on July 1 will assume the rotating presidency of the European Union, is ready with its European partners to evacuate refugees from Syria, the foreign minister said.

"We are only 100 kilometers from the shores of Syria and Lebanon. Anything that goes wrong there will affect us," Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis said in an interview with AFP.

"We are now preparing with our partners of the EU for the possible evacuation (from Syria). We have a crisis management center that we have strengthened."

Kozakou-Marcoullis said her country was "concerned" about the situation in Syria where a brutal uprising since March 2011 has already killed more than 10,000 people, according to the United Nations.

"We have taken the position from the very beginning that we should try to avoid at all costs a military intervention. For us, military operation in Syria will mean an explosive situation in the region that will not be contained only to Syria."

The Cypriot foreign minister recalled the role Cyprus played in evacuating 65,000 foreigners from Lebanon in 2006 during Israel's war on Lebanon in the summer that year.

She said she reminded her European counterparts about the geographical location of Cyprus when it comes to such an eventuality.

"We keep telling them, I keep telling them. In every Foreign Affairs Council (meeting) I keep reminding about the geographical proximity but also about the dangers and the threats," said Kozakou-Marcoullis.

"If these potential refugees and asylum seekers do not come by boat and sea, they will come through the occupied areas and this is our biggest problem right now with asylum seekers."

Since 1974 Turkey has occupied the northern third of Cyprus which is separated from the Republic of Cyprus by a "green line" monitored by the United Nations.

The breakaway state, the self-proclaimed "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus," is recognized only by Ankara.

"Imagine there is a major upheaval in the Middle East, definitely part of them will try to come this way," the minister said.

"It happened with recent uprisings in North Africa, with Italy, with Malta, and this is why one of the inherited priorities of the presidency is the conclusion of this very important European common asylum system," she added.

Kozakou-Marcoullis said northern EU countries should share the cost of receiving refugees driven from their homes by the Arab Spring uprisings with their southern counterparts, who are already bearing the brunt of the migration.

She said Cyprus would not return Syrian refugees in the near term.

"We have taken the decision recently not to send back to Syria any of the asylum seekers or illegal immigrants who are here until the situation is more clear. But there is a limit to what we can do. We are a small country," she said.

The minister also discussed with AFP the issue of the island's partition, saying it will not be influenced by the fact that Cyprus will hold the six-month EU presidency.

"Not only it has never been on the agenda and it is not up to us as the presidency to bring it on the agenda," she said.

But relations with Turkey are regularly discussed at meetings of EU foreign ministers and heads of the governments, she added.

"We have always wanted dialogue with Turkey. The problem is that Turkey has built a block, a concrete block, and not only do they not recognize us but they don't even want to talk to us. So there is a complete deadlock as far as any dialogue with Turkey itself is concerned."

Ankara has decided to freeze contacts with the EU presidency while it is held by Cyprus.

(AFP, Al-Akhbar)