TRNC President Dervis Eroglu participated in a discussion about the Cyprus problem live on TRT, a major Turkish news channel, yesterday.
He revealed that he is preparing a letter in response to the recent demand by the UN Secretary General for negotiations to restart. Mr Eroglu said that he would be pressing Mr Downer when they meet in March, for a Spring push on negotiations.
Mr Eroglu said that the new Greek Cypriot President Anastasiades would need to explain the statements he had been making during the election propaganda campaign. He said that the current policy appears to be not to accept the Turkish guarantee or stationing of its troops in Cyprus.
Mr Anastasiades has also rejected the Annan Plan and said that negotiations related to it are no longer possible. It should not be forgotten that Mr Anastasiades was initially in favour of this plan.
Mr Eroglu also pointed out that negotiations had been carried out unsuccessfully for 44 years and that he had on a number of occasions requested a timetable for the talks but that this had been rejected by the Greek Cypriots. He said that by now every conceivable aspect of the negotiations had been covered.
He said that all his suggestions over the past four years had been rejected by the Greek side, who were not putting forward proposals. In addition they were refusing to go to arbitration.
