Turkish Cypriot daily Vatan (18.12.13), under the title “Erolgu: We are waiting Anastasiades’ reply”, reports that Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu said that the Turkish Cypriot side had sent its latest draft proposal on the joint declaration to the Greek Cypriot side via the UN Secretary General’s Special Adviser for Cyprus Alexander Downer and is still waiting for their reply.
Noting that the draft had been the result of long-term works, Eroglu repeated that from the very beginning he had declared that there was no need for such a declaration to re-launch the Cyprus negotiations process. Claiming that an agreement was reached at the first dinner meeting held between the two leaders to start the negotiations during the first half of October, he said, despite of this, three months had been lost until now.
Claiming that the draft proposal put forward by the Turkish Cypriot side had been welcomed by the UN, Eroglu argued that according to the leaked reports in the Greek Cypriot press the Cyprus government was not too pleased with this.
He concluded that the joint declaration should include the views of both sides.
Asked to comment on the fact that the Cyprus government has made complaints to the United Nations over a meeting the UNSG Special Adviser Alexander Downer had with the Turkish FM in the so called “Turkish embassy” in the Turkish-occupied areas of Cyprus, on Saturday, Eroglu argued that the Republic of Turkey is a recognized state by the world and a UN member, for this reason, the “embassy” located in the “TRNC” is an “embassy” accepted by other world states.
Eroglu alleged that Greek Cypriots’ reference to the “embassy” as the embassy at the occupied region is extremely wrong, adding that “TRNC” [trans. Note: the breakaway regime in the occupied area of the Republic of Cyprus] is a “state” recognized by Turkey, and “Turkish ambassador is an ambassador living in the TRNC.”
Claiming that there was nothing more natural than Downer’s visit of the “Ambassador of Republic of Turkey”, which is a member of the UN, Eroglu argued: “Therefore I wonder how those who cannot even put up with this will act or what kind of attitude they will show when the negotiations launch.”
