TRNC News Today 5^th February 2016

Burcu: “Greek Cypriot leaders should act responsibly”

Mentioning that South Cyprus is entering the election process while the negotiations are continuing in order to solve the Cyprus problem, Presidential Spokesperson Barış Burcu said, “Our hope is to be responsible in this process and to avoid distortions and statements which can damage the settlement process.”

Burcu stated that President Mustafa Akıncı’s position is the same as announced to the public during the election period; not to reject the existing agreement, on the contrary, to move on.

In this regard, mentioning that the February 11, 2014 agreement is an important document, Burcu said that negotiations are continuing in this context.

Burcu stated that significant progress has been achieved on administration and power sharing, economy, EU and property chapters.

Indicating that the issue of how the new state will emerge is a fruitless discussion which has been continuing for many years, Burcu said, “Since the two sides do not recognize each other and the confederation of the two separate sovereign states is not being negotiated, it is natural that we will create a United Federal Cyprus which consists of two constituent states. The February 11, 2014 agreement is also very clearly within this framework.”

Candan: “Reviewing works with the EU are intensively continuing”

Deputy of the Republican Turkish Party (CTP) Armağan Candan informed the General Council of the Republican Assembly about the EU contacts of the parliamentary delegations. Candan said, “Reviewing works with the EU are intensively continuing.”

Making a non- agenda speech at yesterday’s session of the Assembly, Candan said that everyone they met in the EU so far are expecting good news related to the world and this is the Cyprus problem.

Stating that the EU delegation’s visit to Cyprus every week and meeting with Turkish and Greek Cypriot representatives in order to review work on the EU Acquis, Candan expressed that this work  has been continuing intensively for the last 3 months.

First joint visit of the negotiators to Brussels

Turkish Cypriot negotiator Özdil Nami and the Greek Cypriot negotiator Andreas Mavroyiannis visited the EU Commission to discuss with President Juncker`s personal representatives Martin Selmayr, Clara Martinez, Pieter Van Nuffel, Margaritis Schinas and Maarten Verwey, the state of play in the Cyprus settlement talks.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker also joined the meeting in Brussels briefly and had the chance to welcome personally the two Chief Negotiators. A UN representative also attended the meeting.

The Commission representatives expressed their readiness to continue supporting actively the process at all levels. In this context, it was agreed to deploy the necessary financing and human resources in order to facilitate in particular the adaptation of the Turkish Cypriot community to the Community acquis. It was also agreed to maintain the option of meeting in such a format on a regular basis.

Source: TRNC Public Information Office –

To read more news and information from the TRNC Ministry of Foreign Affairs, please click here

Pictures shown are courtesy of the TRNC Public Information Office Facebook page.