Turkish Cypriot daily Bakis newspaper (28.02.14) reports that the Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu said yesterday that the negotiating process has not “warmed up” yet and added that the crosswise meetings of the two communities’ negotiators in Athens and Ankara are the start of a dialogue. In statements during a meeting with the chairmen of the Democratic Party – National Forces (DP-UG) regional organizations in occupied Mesaoria plain, Eroglu noted that this was said during the meeting held with Turkey.

He claimed, inter alia, the following: “A bi-zonal, bi-communal solution based on political equality sounds good, but the important thing is how the details will be filled in… For this reason the Greek Cypriots demanded for a meeting from the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmet Davutoglu through the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Davutoglu is an experienced person. ‘We accept this, but the Turkish Cypriot negotiator will be accepted under the same conditions in Athens’, he said. The meeting would have been held in September, but it was held yesterday. The Greek Prime Minister has tried to prevent it. The interlocutor of the Greek Cypriot people is not the government of the Republic of Turkey. They exchanged views with an undersecretary of the Foreign Ministry, but not for the solution of the problem, but for the beginning of a dialogue. For example, when we wanted to have a meeting with the German Foreign Ministry, the Greek Cypriot side said that ‘these are a non-recognized state, do not meet with them’. However, now, because Greece held this meeting with us, they will not be able to prevent our meetings from now on. This meeting is an advantage for us… According to the Greek Cypriots no emigrant and Turkish soldier will remain on the island. Very well, what our stance will be in front of these? My stance and your stance are known. Our duty will be to warn the people of this country and the political parties, because giving the land and making the movement of population which the Greek Cypriots want, completely abandoning Turkey’s guarantees is tantamount to accepting a life full of dangers again for us. Everyone knows what happened before 1974. We are trying for these not to happen again