Akar: “TRNC has rights to natural resources around the island”
6 March, 2019Saner attended PACE Culture Committee Meeting
7 March, 2019President Mustafa Akıncı received the President of the Turkish Grand National Assembly Mustafa Şentop who paid his first visit to the TRNC yesterday (5th March).
Speaking at the reception, Şentop said that the Turkish Cypriots had struggled for about half a century to protect their own rights. Şentop added that as long as the mentality of the Greek Cypriot side which considers the Turkish Cypriots as a minority continues, a partnership state on the basis of political equality will not be possible to be established. Turkish Cypriots are also the co-owners of Cyprus and it is not acceptable for them to become a minority in the Greek Cypriot state. Expressing that new solution models and new opinions are needed for a solution in Cyprus at the current stage, Şentop said that it is injustice to lose time with inefficient processes. “As long as there is not a common vision between the sides, it is not meaningful to resume the negotiations” Şentop stressed.
In his speech, President Mustafa Akıncı said that the negotiation process regarding the Cyprus problem was started in Beirut in 1968, and still we are trying to reach a solution, we are not asking for more than what we deserve.
Adding that the Turkish Cypriot people also have rights in the wealth of Cyprus, Akıncı said that it is needed to produce ideas based on cooperation, not to create tension and make the Eastern Mediterranean an area of conflict. Akıncı reminded that instead of implementing policies which exclude the Turkish Cypriot people and Turkey, the Greek Cypriot side should give cooperation. The Turkish Cypriot side never accepts, and will never accept, minority rights.