President Mustafa Akıncı, who had a meeting with Prime Minister Ersin Tatar and Foreign Minister Kudret Özersay at the Presidency regarding the issue Maraş, underlined that the topic of Maraş is not an issue that can be handled independently of the TRNC Presidency.
Akıncı stated that such issues should not be considered as if ‘we are exchanging opinions with the President’ and said that “In the past, the opening of closed-down Nicosia airport against Maraş was on the agenda. Since that airport issue has reached a very difficult point, it is in my memories that I associate the subject of Maraş and exhibit various thoughts by bringing Ercan to the agenda. Therefore, the issue of Maraş is not an issue that can be handled independently from the TRNC Presidency. The Presidency makes the decisions on the Cyprus problem”.
Emphasising that the Presidency is not an authority to be informed [after the event], Akıncı said, “We also took a decision in today’s meeting. And as a requirement of this decision, we are discussing this issue with the political parties, parliament and myself. We exchanged views with the President ‘is not an issue that should not be considered. I’ve forwarded it to the government officials. The Presidency is not an authority to provide information on such matters, but an authority to produce decisions under its remit. Of course, the government has decided that it will only carry out an inventory study. Therefore, there is no policy for the future. When it comes to the formation of policy, I think that they should act together with the presidency”.
Akıncı underlined that the project for Maraş should be done by exhibiting an approach that will contribute to the solution of the Cyprus problem. “All these decisions were taken under this roof. I have once again reminded the government that the cooperation with the United Nations and international law must remain as part of the foundation of any new policy. I also underlined that an approach that would contribute to the solution should be taken. The government may conduct inventory work. There’s nothing wrong with that. There are works done in the past for Evkaf property and Maraş in general. Our archive is rich in this regard. The archive will be further enriched by the government’s new inventory study. I emphasise again that it is necessary to proceed in a way that will contribute to the solution [of the Cyprus problem]”.
Kibris Postasi