Statement by the Presidential Spokesperson Mr. Hasan Ercakica

It has been observed that, following the Greek Cypriot Leader’s contacts in the USA, the Greek Cypriot press has widely been referring to new initiatives aiming a comprehensive and timely settlement. It has also been observed that the Greek Cypriot press has been employing negative expressions regarding the said initiatives, which according to their claims will be given a start after the Greek Cypriot elections in February 2008.
As the Turkish Cypriot side, we would like to call upon the Greek Cypriot side once again that a comprehensive settlement is not an issue to be anxious about. On the contrary, once the comprehensive settlement efforts fade and all the hope is lost, “partition”, the issue they are most concerned about, will become a serious threat that will have to be dealt with. The remedy of partition is an urgent and comprehensive settlement.
At this point, we would like to remind what the Greek Cypriot Spokesman had said concerning the issue: ''We should not give the Cypriot people the impression that we will be reaching a solution soon or create expectations that there would be talks on the substance of the problem soon, leading to a comprehensive settlement of our national problem.''
Making use of such expressions, the Greek Cypriot Spokesman gives away their real stance. The Greek Cypriot side is not seeking a settlement for the Cyprus problem via the negotiations. Therefore, it has once again been revealed that the real expectation of the Greek Cypriot side is not the resumption of the comprehensive settlement negotiations but saving time.
Despite all, we would like to underline once again that the purpose of the Turkish Cypriot side is the effective implementation of the 8 July decisions so as to resume the comprehensive settlement negotiations as soon as possible and to settle the Cyprus problem by the end of 2008.