Talat accused President Christofias of “showing the courage of a crazy man” on the explorations for oil; He says Eroglu does not want a solutionTurkish Cypriot Kibris Postasi.com news website (07.09.11) reported that former Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat has accused President Christofias of “showing the courage of a crazy man” on the issue of the explorations for oil and natural gas in the Mediterranean Sea.

In statements to Ada television, Talat argued that a lot of mistakes have been committed on the issue of the oil exploration and added that the actions of Turkish Cypriot leader Eroglu and his team are included in these mistakes. Talat said that if we have agreed on the unification of Cyprus, the exploration should be carried out “with equal rights” and accused the Greek Cypriot side of being insincere.

Talat alleged that especially those who have a vision about the solution should oppose to the “Greek Cypriot side’s unilateral exploration” for oil and natural gas. He said that these are “strategic issues”, that many countries enter into war for the sake of these things and that the Greek Cypriot side should be stopped. Talat claimed that President Christofias “proceeded more” than late President Papadopoulos (on this issue) and challenges Turkey. “This is not wise”, he argued noting that President Christofias should not think that he will beat Turkey through his “big brothers and grandfathers”.

Referring to the migration of the Turkish Cypriots, Talat argued that this migration increased again after people lost their hope, started not seeing the future with confidence, the Greek Cypriots (as he described the Republic of Cyprus) became a member of the EU and the Turkish Cypriots obtained the right of having passports and identity cards of the Republic of Cyprus and travel freely in Europe. Talat claimed that this is a “saddening” development because the Turkish Cypriots are decreasing.

Responding to a question on the Cyprus negotiations, Talat alleged that neither the Turkish nor the Greek Cypriot side exerts efforts for a solution. He said that President Christofias and his party wanted a solution in Cyprus since the very establishment of the party, but “they are not as enthusiastic as the Turkish Cypriots for the solution”. Talat said it is known that Eroglu does not want a solution and that is why he could not play a leading role. Noting that some say that they have other alternatives in case a solution is not reached, Talat asked these people to openly say which these alternatives are.

Talat also accused Eroglu and his team of conveying wrong, insufficient and distorted information to Turkey regarding the negotiations. He said that Eroglu and his team do not continue the negotiations from where he has left them.

Responding to another question, Talat said that this process will lead nowhere and added that Turkey will inevitably freeze its relations with the EU in the period during which the Republic of Cyprus will hold its “secretariat”, as he described the term presidency of the EU Council. He argued that if a solution is not reached by June, the solution perspective will suffer a serious blow. Wondering what will happen then, Talat said that the population structure changes in Cyprus and it exceeded the capacity (of the island) to assimilate this population. “This will cause social explosions”, he argued adding that this is why the solution is inevitable.

Referring to the statement made by Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan that occupied Morfou and Varosha will not be returned to its legal Greek Cypriot owners, Talat noted that if he was in Erdogan’s shoes he would not speak like this, because the issue of territory is not discussed now. Recalling that the sides have agreed to discuss the territory and the map in the last stage of the negotiations, Talat argued that for this reason Erdogan’s statement was not correct.

Responding to a question, Talat alleged that it would be much better if the Cyprus problem had been solved with an agreement in 1974 before late President Archbishop Makarios returned to the island. He claimed that after the return of Makarios, the “image that the Republic of Cyprus is restored came about with the creation of a picture which is not true”. He alleged that the Republic of Cyprus did not exist before 1974 even though it was recognized internationally. He added that this was what Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan wanted to say by stating that “the Republic of Cyprus does not exist”.

Responding to another question, Talat said that the “citizenship” of the breakaway regime is distributed “for the sake of votes”. He argued that they worked seriously on this issue only when the Republican Turkish Party (CTP) was in “power” and noted that when this party was in the “opposition” the “citizenship” was secretly distributed.

Reiterating his views on the issue of the population census, Talat argued that there is no need for such a census in the occupied area of Cyprus. “It will be said to some circles who want a census that ‘we have counted [the population]’. The whole issue is this”, he concluded.