Özgürgün: “The historical ties between the TRNC and Motherland Turkey, as well as those of the Turkish Cypriot people and the Turkish people, can never be broken”
13 July, 2017Ertuğ and Olgun: “Everyone knows which side is responsible for the failure of the talks; all parties witnessed the uncompromising attitude of the Greek Cypriot side”
14 July, 2017In his speech at a press conference following a meeting with the Gambian Foreign Minister, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu referred to the failed Cyprus talks and accused the Greek Cypriot side of being “insincere”.
Çavuşoğlu stated that the Greek Cypriot side continued their drilling activities in the Mediterranean, and said, “While we negotiated a solution for Cyprus, we found out that the Greek Cypriot side had brought the drilling vessel to the region to start drilling work”. The Turkish Cypriot side and Turkey have long maintained that the resources around the island should be shared by both sides.
He added that sending a drilling vessel showed the “insincere” attitude of the Greek Cypriot side towards the reunification talks that failed last week.
Çavuşoğlu stressed that they will react to the steps taken by the Greek Cypriot side. He said, “They tried to take unilateral steps, and a solution to the Cyprus problem has not been achieved because of their insincerity. We cannot ignore the unilateral steps taken by the Greek Cypriot side. We are cooperating with the Ministry of Energy on deciding what steps need to be taken. We will react to the Greek Cypriots’ unilateral actions”.