Turkish Cypriot daily Kibris newspaper (07.03.14) reports that the Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu has argued that an agreement might come up from the economic crises in Cyprus and added that “the peace process will bring stability to the island”.
Davutoglu met yesterday in Italy with his Greek counterpart, Evangelos Venizelos at the side-lines of an international conference on Libya. Asked by a Turkish journalist how the government crisis, which allegedly exists in the Republic of Cyprus, will influence the negotiations for finding a solution to the Cyprus problem, Davutoglu replied:
“As you know, the cross visits were our common suggestion. We had decided this in New York in September. Both of us expressed our satisfaction with the realisation of these [visits]. And the developments are positive now. A government crisis is in question in south Cyprus [Translator’s note: the government-controlled area of the Republic of Cyprus]. In any case, when taking difficult decisions is needed, some political crises need also to be taken into consideration. In this sense, we believe that a peace process will bring stability and not crisis in south Cyprus and in the TRNC. We think that all these could be overcome without a crisis. In our meeting the political issue in south Cyprus did not come onto the agenda. We mostly discussed the negotiations”.

Asked to comment on the information that US ships are heading towards the Black Sea, Davutoglu recalled the Montreux Convention regarding the regime of the straits of Bosporus, noting that the principles for ships passing from the straits are clear and Turkey implements these principles literally. “Everyone saw this in the war in Georgia”, he argued claiming that “we have always respected the international law and especially when the issue is the straits and Turkey’s sovereignty, we, on the one hand, do not give concessions from these and on the other, we implement the agreements which concern us and act on the basis of these agreements”.