Turkish Cypriot daily Kibris newspaper (30.04.14) reports that the Turkish Cypriot leader, Dervis Eroglu has said that substantial negotiations will start on the Cyprus problem during the meeting between the negotiators of the two communities on 6 May, but the issue of territory and especially the map and the numbers will be brought to the table after an agreement is reached on all the other chapters.

Eroglu made these statements yesterday during separate meetings with delegations from the Mersin Journalists’ Society and the Turkish Cypriot Farmers’ Union.

Eroglu reiterated the view that the negotiations could end this year with a decision for a referendum, if both sides have a will for a solution. He recalled that six chapters exist in the negotiations, that these chapters have been discussed before and that some convergences have been achieved. He alleged that “the Greek Cypriot leader does not want to accept these convergences and undertake a commitment to resume the negotiations from the point they had been left”.

Eroglu said that the Turkish Cypriot side would have to re-examine its so-called bridging proposals submitted during the negotiations with former President Christofias, if the Greek Cypriot side said “let us start from the beginning”.

“I think that what [President] Anastasiades has to do is to accept that convergences exist between the former Greek Cypriot leader and us and if he has a new proposal to submit it”, he claimed.

Eroglu said that one of the first issues they consider discussing after the screening process, which has ended, is the “Governance and Power Sharing”. Reiterating the view that territory will be discussed in the very end, Eroglu argued:
“We had put our criteria on territory onto the table during the meeting we held in Geneva. The map and the numbers are in the very end”.

Eroglu alleged that discussing the map before reaching an agreement on the other issue would create unrest in the “country” and this is why they are in favour of discussing the map and the numbers in the very end.

Referring to the project of bringing water to the occupied area of Cyprus from Turkey with undersea pipelines, Eroglu said that this had been their dream for years. He noted that the construction of the project is continuing and that the water will come in September, but they want to bring it on 20 July. Noting, however, that the important thing is for the water to come, Eroglu added that some of this water will be used in agriculture and some of it for drinking purposes. He argued that if needed they could sell some of this water to the Greek Cypriot side.