President Mustafa Akinci has briefed the leaders of the Turkish Cypriot political parties on the latest stage of the ongoing Cyprus negotiations.
In statements after the briefing, Mehmet Ali Talat, leader of the Republican Turkish Party-United Forces (CTP-BG) said that the meeting went well, since they had the chance to evaluate the latest developments on the negotiations.
“The negotiations progress well but there is a deceleration due to the elections in the South. I hope that the process will be intensified”, said Talat.
Commenting about progress in the talks, Talat said that the importance is for the same progress to be achieved also in the fullest extent of the talks.
Talat stressed also that it is important to complete discussions of all issues as soon as possible and added that the core chapters – territory and security, should be also concluded by May.
Also speaking, Huseyin Ozgurgun, leader of the National Unity Party (UBP) described the briefing by President Akinci as very fruitful.
He pointed out that the negotiation process experiences some difficulties and a delay due to the forthcoming parliamentary elections which are to take place in the South. Ozgurgun spoke about a postponement of the negotiations. He said, however, that this is not a problem for them, as they will have the chance to evaluate the situation.
Stating that they believe that the process will speed up after the South’s elections, Ozgurgun said that this will give them time to make preparations.
He added that they cannot say if the Cyprus problem will be solved by the end of the year or the beginning of 2017, but added that it seems that the process will be prolonged.
Also commenting, Serdar Denktas, leader of the Democratic Party-National Forces (DP-UG) described the briefing as useful and said that the result of the talks will be set in a referendum. He added that the real agreement on the Cyprus problem is not at the negotiating table, but the importance of the agreement is in its implementation. “It is for this reason that we should be sensitive. The two peoples should respect and trust each other, otherwise we will probably get bogged down again”, Denktas said.
Noting that it is easy to reach to an agreement but it is difficult to make the agreement viable, Denktas said that they had the opportunity to inform President Akinci of their worries. He added that Akinci makes efforts to protect the Turkish Cypriots’ rights at the negotiating table, with goodwill. He also argued that they cannot say that the Greek Cypriot side shows the same goodwill.
Yeni Duzen
