Akıncı: “As Turkish Cypriots, we have only one harbour to shelter and this is Turkey”

President Akıncı gave an  interview to Anadolu Agency, in which he discussed the tripartite meeting held in New York with the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the Greek Cypriot Leader Nikos Anastasiades, and reiterated that, “As Turkish Cypriots, we have only one harbour to shelter and this is Turkey.”

Stating that the security of the Turkish Cypriots and the system to be established should be under a guarantee, Akıncı noted: “A bi-zonal federal state is being mentioned and one of them will be the Turkish Cypriot Founding State with a separate police organisation – which has not previously existed. There was a mixed police organisation that included some Turkish Cypriot police personnel. Now, we will have separate associations, court, assembly and government.”

President Akıncı continued, “In 1963, 13 articles of the constitution were changed unilaterally. Turkish Cypriots were excluded from that structure. The partnership state was turned into one state and became the government of Greek Cypriots. We cannot have a repeat of these circumstances.  Certainly, we want guarantees in the new federal system. From whom we can expect this? As the Turkish Cypriots, we have only one harbour to shelter and it is Turkey. There is not a consensus on the guarantee issue yet. We have seen instances where a Greek Cypriot who buys potatoes produced by a Turkish Cypriot has been threatened by fellow Greek Cypriots and received arson threats to his office. All these events are experienced nowadays. Therefore, no one should say that we do not need guarantees and security. It is not possible for the Turkish Cypriot side to sign an agreement which does not include guarantees.”

Furthermore, President Akıncı expressed hopes that a resolution of the Cyprus problem will have a positive knock-on effect to Turkey’s EU membership.

In any case, the Turkish Cypriot people need to get rid of the embargoes and political uncertainty.