President Mustafa Akinci held his routine weekly meeting with Prime Minister Tufan Erhurman on Friday, where they discussed the latest developments on the Cyprus problem and also domestic issues.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Erhurman said that he had exchanged views with Akinci about the president’s upcoming visit to New York on 25 September and added that the possibility of starting new Cyprus negotiations will only be determined following Akinci’s contacts in New York.
“There is a possibility that he will meet with the UN Secretary-General as part of his contacts in New York. It will become clear as to whether or not the UN Secretary-General will undertake a new initiative or what that new initiative will be”, he said.
Erhurman also said that President Akinci will convene a meeting of all four party leaders of the coalition government next week ahead of his New York trip.
“The future course of the Cyprus problem will become clearer following Akinci’s contacts in New York”, he added.
Also touching upon domestic issues, Erhurman said that the decision taken by the Turkish Central Bank on Thursday to raise interest rates had led to a gain in the value of the Turkish Lira against foreign currencies.
“This is a positive development from our perspective. Our hope is that the TL will continue to gain more value and at some point, the currently fluctuating exchange rate will stabilise”, he said.
Reminding that the fall in the value of the TL has had a negative impact on both electricity and fuel prices, Erhurman said that the “government is working hard to come up with a solution so that the rise in the cost of producing electricity is not reflected on consumers”.
This he however added is not so easy to do with the price of petrol which kept going up as the TL loses value against the dollar. “With petrol, unfortunately as long as the TL loses value we have no choice but to raise prices”, he said.
BRTK
