News from TRNC

Statement by the Presidential Spokesperson Mr. Hasan Ercakica

We are going through a busy week. Last Monday has started with discussions concerning the repercussions of the Orams case decision of the ECJ in the political agenda and ended with the establishment of a new government in the TRNC.
As it is known, the meeting between the two leaders that was planned on Tuesday (05 May 2009) within the framework of the negotiations aiming to reach a comprehensive solution for the Cyprus problem did not take place. Instead, a special meeting, during which negative external interventions such as the Orams case were discussed, took place and as a result of this meeting President Mehmet Ali Talat and the Greek Cypriot leader Demetris Christoifas have decided to intensify the negotiations.
It should be stated that we attach great importance to this decision taken following the call made to the leaders to “increase the momentum” in a statement issued by the UN Security Council last week. We particularly would like to state that, intensifying the process so as to achieve decisive progress in the process is important, otherwise, possible developments that will have negative effects over the process will hamper the prospects of attaining the desired result.
Recently, the most important development that had negative effects over the process was the decision of the ECJ regarding the Orams case. The Turkish Cypriot side has taken many initiatives for this decision not to have any negative effects over the process and will continue to do so.
In the meantime, we welcomed and noted that the Greek Cypriot leader Mr. Demetris Christofias has finally started to state that there are “natural time tables” that requires finding a timely solution for the Cyprus problem.
Although the existence of natural time tables are accepted, the fact that the Greek Cypriot side underlines that they are not obliged to assist Turkey for the evaluation that will be carried out regarding her EU membership process in December 2009, should be accepted as an effort to the end of maintaining their exploitation of the EU membership process of Turkey. In order to find a timely solution for the Cyprus problem, the Greek Cypriot side should act in a more realistic and constructive way and abandon the dream that they will exploit the EU membership process of Turkey and reach a solution the Turkish Cypriot people would not approve.

During the visit of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, Mr. Ahmet Davutoğlu, who following the change of government in Turkey paid his first foreign visit to Cyprus, we have had the chance to share our perspective with regard to the Cyprus problem and to the world and reaffirm our joint objectives. As it is clearly underlined once again, the joint objective of Turkey and the TRNC is to reach a timely and comprehensive solution for the Cyprus problem in a way enabling us to contribute to peace in the region and in the world. All the relevant circles who have adopted the same objective should support the devoted efforts of the Turkish Cypriot side in this regard.