Ertuğruloğlu said: “Give me a reason for trusting the EU!

In his interview with Dávid László, Deputy Chief of Foreign News of “Magyar Nemzet”, one of the most important newspapers of Hungary, Foreign Minister Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu stressed, “We don’t want to waste any more time.”

“We have no chance to find a common ground as long as the international community treats the Greek Cypriots as “the State” and the Turkish Cypriots as “a minority in that state”, the Minister said. Ertuğruloğlu pointed out the meaninglessness of starting the negotiations on a ground that has been proven to be unsuccessful many times for the last fifty years, adding that “We do not want to waste any more time. Before the negotiations, we drew the attention of the international community to the necessity of treating the parties equally. This means that the two states will negotiate, not the state on the one hand and the society on the other hand.”

In response to a question Ertuğruloğlu said: “Give me a reason for trusting the EU!” and added that the European Union has not been able to prove its neutrality so far.

Minister Ertuğruloğlu said, “The Union has no place at the negotiating table and it will never happen if you ask me.”

In his response to the question ‘why the international community should recognise the TRNC now’, Ertuğruloğlu stated that the negotiations should be between the two equal parties and that the root of the problem is that the Greek Cypriots are treated as “the only and legitimate representatives of the country” and said, “We do not expect them to change on their own. They have no reason for that. It is the responsibility of the international community to change them. This is exactly what we drew attention to in Geneva. I emphasise ‘Just because they don’t recognise us doesn’t mean that we don’t exist!’ Sooner or later our recognition will come to the agenda. This is inevitable”.

In response to a question about what might happen if Turkish troops leave the island, Minister Ertuğruloğlu pointed out that the only thing that prevents Cyprus from becoming a Greek island is the presence of the Turkish troops and said that precisely for this reason, the main demand of the Greek Cypriots is the Turkish forces leaving the island. “Otherwise, if they don’t have a bad intention why are they afraid of Turkish troops? If the Turkish troops leave, Cyprus will become Crete. If you visit Crete, you won’t find any Turks in the whole of the island. They all moved away and the same thing would happen here” said Ertuğruloğlu. He emphasised that Turkey is not an occupying power, it does not need more land and it is a big enough country anyway.

Indicating that they only trust Turkey, the Minister said: “Only Turkey can guarantee our security. They have already proven that they will protect us at all costs. We do not want the European Union, we are fully aware of what happened in Bosnia. The presence of Turkish forces is indisputable”.

Source: TRNC Public Information Office