"Straw fallout leads to cancelled trips
By Jean Christou
Following debacle over British FM’s meeting with Talat other diplomats have changed their plans
LIKE every other component of society, diplomatic circles have their own grapevine and one of the topics of conversation doing the rounds at the moment is an apparent spate of postponed visits by senior foreign officials.
The reason appears to be the government’s May, 2005 policy of objecting to visits to the ‘presidential’ office of Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat.
The policy was exposed to its fullest extent during the visit of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw last month after he refused to go along with the policy.
According to Sunday Mail information, since the policy of “quietly discouraging” visiting officials has been implemented, 13 foreign ministers who have been to the island have not seen Talat in his office or heard the views of the Turkish Cypriot community."
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