Turkish Cypriot daily Realist newspaper (30.04.14) reports on statements by the former Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat who has said that If Turkish Cypriots had said “yes” to a solution one year before the Annan plan, instead of saying “yes” to the Annan plan in 2004, the situation would be very different, as he claimed.

Talat made the above statements while delivering a speech on the Cyprus problem at Adnan Menderes University in Turkey.

Asked to reply to the question: “Are the Turkish Cypriot people biased about the Turkish troops?”, Talat said the following: “Opinion poll showed that 95% of the Turkish Cypriots want the existence of the Turkish troops on the island. Despite of what they say. (…)There is no prejudice against the army. The army is in the barracks, it is not inside the social life”.