Cyprus fears 'army' victory in Turkey

If Turkey's army grabs power from the government in a standoff over the country's secular nature it will reduce Turkish chances of joining the EU and of solving the Cyprus issue, the Cypriot foreign minister was quoted as saying by a Greek paper Sunday.

"With the military in power and Turkey outside the European Union we could not hope that the conditions would be ripe for progress on the Cyprus issue," Cypriot Foreign Minister Georgios Lillikas told the Eleftheros Typos daily.

"Derailing Turkey's European train is a negative contingency for Cyprus, although it is not impossible that we will have to imagine this scenario soon," he added.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkish troops seized and invaded its northern third in response to an Athens engineered coup to unite the island with Greece.

Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis also reiterated to Eleftheros Typos that Athens supported "Turkey's European prospects despite the reserves expressed by some EU member countries."

"We consider that a European and democratic Turkey is in the interest of peace, development and stability in our region," she added.

The Turkish army, which has toppled four governments in as many decades, issued a bombshell statement last week accusing the government of tolerating rising Islamist activity in secular Turkey after Islamist-rooted Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul stood as the country's only presidential candidate.

Gul failed in his second bid to get elected Sunday, when a re-run ballot in parliament was cancelled for lack of a quorum.

After the abortive session, which was boycotted by the opposition, Gul said he would withdraw his candidacy, clearing the way for early general elections which have been brought forward from November to July 22.