Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 13-11-10

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] SYRIZA leader accuses gov't of manhandling its MPs at ERT

[02] FM spokesman responds to further statements by Turkish FM to EU commissioner

[01] SYRIZA leader accuses gov't of manhandling its MPs at ERT

"These are outrageous images," Tsipras said of television broadcasts from the site. "They show a small group of MPs being pushed by riot police in helmets. This image does not honor democracy and parliament. We asked you to condemn such incidents and to assume your very heavy responsibilities," he told the government.

State Deputy Dimitris Stamatis denied the charges and responded, "You invoke witness reports by your deputies, while I invoke the minister's observation. I believe he is a lot more reliable than your deputies."

Stamatis also condemned SYRIZA's decision to hold a protest rally outside parliament, ahead of midnight's roll-call vote on the motion of censure, calling it "a dangerous attempt at frightening deputies that lies outside political ethics."

[02] FM spokesman responds to further statements by Turkish FM to EU commissioner

Ministry spokesman Konstantinos Koutras, responding to press questions, said that there were erroneous references made by Davutoglu following his meeting with European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Fule, in Ankara, concerning the results of the Sept. 23 meeting he had with his Greek counterpart Evangelos Venizelos in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

"As government Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos has repeatedly stressed, Greece – in response to a relevant request from the President of the Republic of Cyprus, and in order to facilitate direct contact between the Greek Cypriot negotiator and the Turkish government – agreed to a meeting, on the corresponding level, of the Secretary General of the Greek Foreign Ministry with the negotiator for the Turkish Cypriot community, which is provided for by the 1960 Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus, and not, of course, with a representative of the pseudo-state," Koutras clarified.

Such meetings, he said, "on the highest level, in fact, of the President of the Republic of Cyprus with the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community, take place very frequently, without ever raising an issue of indirect recognition of the pseudo-state, which is, in any case, prohibited by the relevant explicit resolution of the UN Security Council."

He concluded that as Venizelos "has also repeatedly stressed, these meetings neither constitute an indirect quadrilateral conference, nor prefigure such a thing, which has been ruled out by the Cypriot and Greek governments, which respect and support the UN Secretary General's mission of good offices."

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