Ozgurgun accuses Greek Cypriot side of lack of honesty in the negotiationsTurkish Cypriot daily Haberdar (14.09.11) reports on statements by the breakaway regime’s self-styled minister of foreign affairs Huseyin Ozgurgun. “Greek Cypriots view the Cyprus problem as their own internal issue. This is why foreign ministers do not participate in the negotiations. They are sending the message to the whole world that it is a ‘minority issue’. The Cyprus issue is an internal problem, when you examine it from the Greek Cypriot perspective. While oil and natural gas is an external problem,” Ozgurgun reportedly said.

He also alleged that this is the reason why Greek Cypriots think that their collocutor is Turkey, when the main collocutors are Turkish Cypriots and added that they are ready for a solution but it is difficult to reach a solution with “this Greek Cypriot mentality.” Additionally, he claimed that Cyprus’ exploratory drilling in its EEZ proves that the Greek Cypriot side does not behave honestly in the negotiations and added: “We already thought that they never sat on the [negotiations] table with honesty. They continue the negotiations in order not to be named as the side which left the table.”