Eroglu reveals that the Turkish side wants the negotiations to stop in order to be able to ask for the recognition of the breakaway regime
Turkish daily Aksam newspaper (13.08.12, online) published an interview with Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu, who, according to the paper, wants “a different negotiating strategy” in Cyprus. Under the title “The negotiations should also have an end”, Aksam’s correspondent Senay Yildiz reports that she interviewed Eroglu after a fast breaking dinner hosted by the Turkish Cypriot leader in occupied Lefkosia for a group of Turkish journalists.

Asked about the efforts for finding a solution in Cyprus, Eroglu said that no one asks him about the course of the negotiations now in Cyprus and argued that the inhabitants of the occupied area of Cyprus have lost their hope that a solution will be reached and that Turkey will join the European Union.

When asked whether he believed in the solution, Eroglu alleged that he tried to have this hope because he was at the negotiating table, but reiterated the claim that President Christofias deceived the world for two years that he wanted a solution, but actually he negotiated without thinking of reaching a solution. Eroglu went on and argued: “The discussion for two separate states has started in the south as well. Therefore, the Turkish Cypriot people have also stopped hoping for a solution. The same view prevails in the Greek Cypriot people as well. Here only some political parties do not abandon this [the solution], because they related the reason of their existence to the solution”.

Asked whether he agreed with the view that neither the Greek nor the Turkish side believe that a solution will be reached, but both sides continue being at the negotiating table in order to avoid taking the responsibility of abandoning the negotiations, Eroglu alleged, inter alia, the following:

“Of course, this is what the Greek Cypriots are doing, because the Greek Cypriots are members of the EU, they are term presidents now, they are members of the UN and of course they have a power. I do not have a power and the Greek Cypriots do not want to share that power. However, they do not want to leave the negotiating table and become the side to be blamed. All their efforts are to remain at the negotiating table and to keep us there. I remained for two years at the negotiating table and put many proposals onto the table. However, they have only one thing in their head. The Republic of Cyprus and the Greek majority administrating the Turkish minority… The Greek Cypriots plan that our relations with Turkey will deteriorate, our economy will worsen and we will need the Greek Cypriots and accept living under the name of Republic of Cyprus. They have no problem to sit at the negotiating table. However, we cannot ask for recognition as long as we are at the negotiating table. A situation such as withdrawal of the UN Peace Keeping Force from here cannot come onto the agenda. The biggest fear of the Greek Cypriots is the withdrawal of the UN Peace Keeping Force from here because they know that the course towards two states could not be stopped when the peace keeping force goes away”.

Eroglu said he was tired of the negotiations and argued that they should have an end like everything else has an end. He added: “For this reason I say that a final date should be put to the negotiations. All aspects of the Cyprus problem have been discussed, have been debated. The Greek Cypriots dream is the returning to the pre-1974 period and we try to explain that this is not possible any more. The whole issue is this”.

Asked to comment on the view which exists in Turkey that the Turkish Cypriots are lazy, do not produce and Turkey sends them a lot of money every year, Eroglu said that the Turkish Cypriots are not lazy and that the money sent by Turkey is used for infrastructure and for closing the “budget” deficit. He added: “Everybody works but it is true that we have not come to the position of being self-sufficient. Think where we had been before 1974 and where we have come. Think that we are a country the majority of which consist of refugees. The first think we did after 1974 was to accept refugees. We settled to the north the Turks of the south and we accepted population from Turkey as well. Both those who came from the south and from Turkey came with their luggage. We gave housing and working places to these people according to their profession…”
When he was told that Democratic Rally Party (DISY) chairman Nikos Anastasiades is expected to be elected President of the Republic in February 2013 and asked whether he was optimistic about the negotiating process after the presidential elections, Eroglu noted that he could not say that he was very optimistic about the process, because President Christofias gave nothing in the negotiations, but the policy of the Greek Cypriots is to “take back whatever Christofias gave away”.

Asked whether they have made any preparations on the issue of occupied fenced city of Varosha, which is kept close for being used as trump card in the negotiations, Eroglu replied: “We have some thoughts but we are keeping them for ourselves for the time being. We say that ‘Varosha is a part of the comprehensive solution’, but of course Varosha cannot remain like this for 100 years. We will evaluate how our thoughts will be put into practice and what the timing will be according to the course of the negotiations.
Asked whether the National Unity Party (UBP) is being dissolved after he left the leadership of the party, Eroglu argued that he was trying to create an “UBP mission” by embracing everybody, but the chairman who succeeded him tried to create a more “personal team”. He noted that he had shared with self-styled prime minister Irsen Kucuk his view that this strategy would divide the party, but Kucuk had an old habit to “personalize politics”. Therefore, argued Eroglu, problems are experienced within the UBP, which had taken 44% during the last “elections”, but the public opinion polls show that it fell to 30-34%.