Burcu: “It has become unavoidable to take steps in order to protect Turkish Cypriot rights and interests”
16 January, 2018Foreign Ministry calls EU: “Our expectation from the European Union is to act in a just manner, more balanced towards the two sides, and within the framework of equality”
16 January, 2018The Speaker of the TRNC Assembly Sibel Siber issued a statement following the
4th Southern European Countries Summit in Rome last week.
The Speaker stated that the Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Anastasiades had once again given a clear message to the world about the kind of a solution he wished to see, pointing to Anastasiades’s reference to the “ 0 troops, 0 guarantees” ultimatum in the joint statement issued by leaders during the Summit on January 10th. Siber called on the UN to intervene with the Greek Cypriot leader “to stop these unilateral initiatives”.
The Turkish Cypriot people have struggled for many years for existence and have repeatedly demonstrated their desire to reach a fair settlement in Cyprus, the Speaker said, which was unfortunately undermined, most recently in Crans Montana, by the Greek Cypriot side’s failure to adopt a solution model based on equality, leading to the collapse of negotiations.
Siber strongly criticised the joint agreement on Cyprus issued during the Rome Summit supporting “0 guarantees”, saying that that these EU countries were endorsing an agreement which disregarded the will of the Turkish Cypriot people. Siber said, “This is a unilateral decision by EU member countries which disregards the views of the Turkish Cypriot people on the issue of guarantees and security. This is unacceptable and contravenes fundamental EU principles.”
“Furthermore, the Greek Cypriot Administration intends to sign an “Exclusive Economic Zone Agreement” with Greece and aims to own the maritime zone unilaterally. This is yet another initiative of the Greek Cypriot side which disregards the rights of the Turkish Cypriots in this shared economic zone” Siber added.