"Cyprus will continue to be a thorn in Turkey's EU ambitions 17/12/2004
Turkey may have secured an historic date to start EU membership negotiations but the thorny issue of its recognition of Cyprus will continue to pose an obstacle to its accession bid. Turkey has given a promise to commit to signing an additional protocol to a 1963 accord with the EU's forerunner, called the Ankara Agreement, to cover the bloc's 10 new member states including Cyprus before accession talks start in October 2005. But this may not entirely satisfy a Greek Cypriot public who backed Cypriot President Tassos Papadoupoulos using the veto if Turkey did not agree to fully recognise the Republic of Cyprus, according to recent opinion polls. "
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