Former Turkish Cypriot Leader not hopeful for a solution
Talat not hopeful that a solution on the Cyprus problem will be reached
Turkish Cypriot daily Haberdar (11.08.11) reports that Mehmet Ali Talat, former Turkish Cypriot leader, has argued that the non-solution of the Cyprus problem is supported in both sides of the island and wondered how two leaders who support the non-solution will find a solution to the Cyprus problem.
Talat had a long conversation on many issues with Gokhan Altiner, columnist of Haberdar. Altiner reports that he saw Talat very pessimistic on the Cyprus problem.
Responding to a question, Talat said that he is not informed on what happens in the Cyprus negotiations and recalled that when he was the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community he was accused by Dervis Eroglu of hiding everything from the “people”.
“Mr Eroglu continuously says to the community that a solution could be achieved and that they work for this, but I clearly say to you that in this manner not only a solution could not to be achieved, but not even a solution in pieces, because both leaders do not exert such effort”, he alleged.
Responding to another question, Talat said that it seems that the relations of Eroglu with the self-styled government of the regime are not good. He recalled that when he was in the leadership of the Turkish Cypriot community, Eroglu demanded the inclusion of self-styled foreign minister Huseyin Ozgurgun in Talat’s negotiating team and was strongly criticizing him because he was not doing this. “Why he does not include him now”, he wondered.
Talat argued that the relations between the community and the self-styled government deteriorated recently. He wondered why Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan was not making hard statements when Talat was in the leadership of the Turkish Cypriot community. He expressed the view that Erdogan has not changed and argued that the National Unity Party (UBP) “government” is responsible for Erdogan’s hard statements regarding the Turkish Cypriots. Talat said that he does not approve these statements made by Erdogan, but accused the UBP “government” for blaming Ankara on everything and for deteriorating the relations between Erdogan and the Turkish Cypriots.
“There is a government which expects everything from Turkey. They have come to a situation where Ankara tells them what to do and they do it”, he noted.
Leave a Reply