Foreign Minister Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu gave a briefing to the committee of the Newcastle University
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29 March, 2017President Mustafa Akıncı stated that April and May are important months to make a decision regarding the Cyprus negotiations and added that talks cannot be dragged out.
He made these remarks while speaking at the conference “The Past, Present and Future of the Cyprus Problem” organized by the History Club of the Turk Maarif College for the fourth time. Akıncı said that his biggest wish is to be the last President who speaks about this topic and that he hopes there will be conferences to discuss the opportunities after a solution is reached.
Reminding that the solution-seeking process began in 1968 in Cyprus, after the Republic of Cyprus collapsed in 1963 and the Greek Cypriot side was unfairly considered the only legal government in the United Nations 186 Resolution, a fact that remains unfair until today, Akıncı said that a solution has not been reached so far due to the attitudes of the Greek Cypriot side.
He also said that although one of the proposals presented in 1993 included the opening of the closed city Maraş and the Nicosia Airport in the UN buffer zone, they could not be opened because of the policies applied by the Greek Cypriots.
Moreover, Akıncı discussed the Annan Plan, which was rejected by the Greek Cypriots in the 2004 referendum, and said that the Greek Cypriot side became a member of the EU even though they had rejected the plan, while the Turkish Cypriots, who voted in favour of it, were not granted membership..
Reminding that the current negotiations process had entered a deadlock due to a decision taken by the Greek Cypriot House of Representatives to commemorate the 1950 Enosis plebiscite in schools, Akıncı said that Enosis has been the basis of all suffering in Cyprus, including the events of 1963 and 1974.
Akıncı emphasized that political equality, freedom and security are essential for the Turkish Cypriots, stressing that the Turkish Cypriots should not be dominated by anyone, and that they will never return to the conditions they lived in before 1974.
Akıncı emphasized that he will be ready to return to the negotiating table once the Greek Cypriot parliament declares the elimination of the Enosis decision.