Özersay: “It is necessary to be very careful on the issue of quintet meeting”

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Kudret Özersay said that it is necessary to be very careful on the issue of quintet meeting.

Özersay answered the questions on BRT, 20th July Special Programme. In his speech, Özersay stressed that as a government, they do not approve of a quintet meeting being held under the same negotiation ground which has been discussed for 50 years. “If we start to negotiate ‘federation’ while the Greek Cypriot Administration is not ready to share governance and natural wealth with the Turkish Cypriots, negotiations will be continuing from the stage left. If the quintet meeting is to be held, it should be accepted from the beginning that new views and different type partnership models should be discussed”.

“The Greek Cypriot side states that they are ready to cooperate with Turkey on the issue of natural gas. We make a call to the Greek Cypriots to cooperate on the issue of natural gas. Turkey is already cooperating with the TRNC. If an unofficial quintet meeting is to be held, the second chapter should be natural gas. We should discuss the natural gas issue altogether and it should be clarified before the meeting. On the one part, we should discuss how both sides will administer and share these resources, and on the other side, we should discuss maritime zone delimitation” Özersay added.