TRNC News Today 29th May 2014

President Eroğlu: “ Issue of Varosha was not on the agenda”

Speaking on the issue of Varosha, President Derviş Eroğlu said that during his meeting with US Vice President Joe Biden, the issue of Varosha was not on the agenda.

Stressing that Biden’s visit was historical and fruitful, President Eroğlu said that leaders’ meeting more often is very important in terms of finalizing the convergences and added that the significant point is to confirm the convergences as expressed in the joint statement and to discuss the other issues quickly and get a result.

Negotiator Özersay gives a conference in France

Turkish Cypriot Negotiator – Prof. Dr. Kudret Özersay expressed the steps that the Turkish Cypriot side thinks should be taken for a solution in a conference where diplomats, academicians and press members participated in Paris.

Özersay emphasized that it is possible to achieve a positive result from the negotiation process in spite of some existing technical problems, if the international community’s political vision directed to Cyprus is reconsidered.

Replying to the questions in the conference organized by the European – American Chamber of Commerce, Negatiator Özersay stated that there are some technical problems and the reason for this is to behave normally to the situation which is not normal in the island.

Touching also on the discussions concerning the Confidence Building Measures and the issue of Maraş (Varosha) made in the recent period, Özersay said “If the Confidence Building Measures are not planned as a contributor to a solution, it will cause permanent deadlock in the island. For this reason, provided that the Confidence Building Measures are associated with a comprehensive solution and are balanced, they can serve for creating confidence. Otherwise, we will be faced with two parallel processes which are not supporting but poisoning each other. We, as the Turkish Cypriot side, can lean towards confidence building measures, which can be associated with a solution, without leading away from priority of a comprehensive solution”.