Candan speaks to Italian press: “Turkish Cypriots are a part of the EU, they are Europeans”
15 April, 2019Establishment anniversary of Cyprus Foundation Administration being celebrated
16 April, 2019Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu stated that today the entire world’s eyes are on the Eastern Mediterranean and it is an area of tension. Unfortunately, we have been unsuccessful in turning the Eastern Mediterranean into an area of peace.
Çavuşoğlu delivered a speech during the joint meeting of the 99th Rose-Roth Seminar and the Mediterranean and the Middle East special group of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly meeting in Antalya, Turkey and he also touched upon the Cyprus issue.
Regarding the guarantor countries on the Cyprus issue, Çavuşoğlu expressed his disagreement concerning the statement of the Greek parliament saying that “Cyprus is an EU country and the guarantorship is not within the framework of the modern world”.
Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu continued:
“At this time, the guarantee of Turkey is very important for Turkish Cypriots and Cyprus. The second issue is that despite all our efforts and goodwill calls to Greek Cypriots, without guaranteeing the rights of the Turkish Cypriots (Greece and the Greek Cypriot side accepted that the Turkish Cypriot side has such rights) the Greek Cypriot side has started unilateral hydrocarbon activities and this reminds us that the guarantee of Turkey is more important than ever in Cyprus today.
On the one hand, they try to operate unilaterally with some countries and they express that ‘the Turkish Cypriot side also has rights’, on the other hand they ignore it. Then, who will defend the rights of the Turkish Cypriot people? Turkey will defend as a guarantor. This is Turkey’s most natural right and the Turkish Cypriot people say that the guarantorship is more sensitive than ever before. As Greece, you do not wish for this. You cannot decide for this. Turkish Cypriot people will decide and we decide, as Turkey, for this. The issues of guarantorship and security are more important than ever in Cyprus today. You cannot underestimate it with statements such as ‘outdated or outmoded’.