Akıncı: “I think we should start to hold regular meetings”
13 July, 2016Minister of Public Works and Communications Dürüst states Turkish Cypriots have been on the island since 1571
14 July, 2016“Any agreement that makes the Greek Cypriots a majority and the Turkish Cypriots a minority should be avoided during the negotiations,” said Ata Atun, a member of the advisory board to Derviş Eroğlu, the former Turkish Cypriot President.
Atun argued that statements made by the Presidential Spokesperson Barış Burcu referring to “220,000 people who will become citizens of the Federal Republic of Cyprus” did not comply with official census results from the State Planning Organization (DPÖ) in 2011.
“The population in 2011 was 286,257. The population now is presumably around 296,000. If that is so, what will happen to the citizenship of the remaining 76,000 people?”
Atun also asked why more than 300,000 Turkish Cypriots living in England, as well as Turkish Cypriots who had to immigrate to Turkey after the Treaty of Lausanne and due to the EOKA attacks in 1955, were not included in these numbers.
Atun believes that any agreement based on a ratio of 4 Greek Cypriots : 1 Turkish Cypriot, as the Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Anastasiades proposed, or 220,000 TRNC citizens : 802,000 Greek Cypriot citizens, as Presidential Spokesperson Barıs Burcu mentioned, is unacceptable.