Turkish Cypriot daily Kibris newspaper (29.12.13) reported that the Turkish Cypriot leader, Dervis Eroglu has alleged thatthe recent crisis in Turkey will not influence the negotiating process in Cyprus. In statements to Turkish Cihan news agency, Eroglu said that they will not accept any “excessive demands” that will be possibly submitted by the Greek Cypriots due to their encouragement by Turkey’s internal problems.
“Turkey has transferred these problems to justice. I think that this internal problem will soon be solved through the government in Turkey giving a chance to justice’s neutrality”, he argued claiming that “the Cyprus problem has not been influenced by the recent developments experienced in Turkey”.
Eroglu said that the UN Secretary-General will submit a report on Cyprus to the Security Council in January and added that during a telephone conversation he had held with Ban Ki-moon, he asked him to be objective in this report. He alleged that usually the UN Secretary-General is not objective in his reports on Cyprus and tries to keep the balances because “they are afraid of facing the Russian veto” at the Security Council.
Eroglu reiterated the allegation thatno joint declaration is needed for the resumption of the Cyprus talks and noted that when he was “elected” he sent a letter to the UN Secretary-General expressing the commitment to continue the negotiations from the point they had been left. “Instead of giving this commitment, the Greek Cypriot leader Anastasiades has brought up the joint declaration drollery. This issue has been turned into a drollery now. The UN should exert pressure on the Greek Cypriots to put an end to this drollery”, he alleged.
When he was reminded of the complaint submitted last week to the UN by the Republic of Cyprus on the grounds that the Turkish Barbaros Hayrettin Pasha vessel was holding seismic explorations in the Mediterranean violating Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone, Eroglu confirmed that the vessel held seismic explorations and argued: “Turkey continues holding seismic exploration in the Mediterranean. This issue is not a secret”.
