Turkish Cypriot President Dervis Erolu has said that extending the negotiation period would create negative attitudes in both sides. “What I have in mind is finalising the negotiations and holding a referendum by the end of the year. On the other hand Greek Cypriots are aiming at the period after 2015. I don’t know if we can find a happy medium” said Eroglu, Turkish Cypriot daily ‘Kibris Postasi’ reports.
The president was speaking on television, and repeated the Turkish Cypriot side’s demand for speeding up the negotiations but said that no timeline had been included in the joint declaration.
Some of Eroglu’s main comments are as follows:
“During my meeting with UN Secretary General Bank Ki-moon, I reiterated my opinion regarding deciding on a time frame and Mr. Ban said that he also believes negotiations should speed up and a settlement should be reached. It was important that he expressed a similar opinion.”
“We requested negotiators to meet twice a week and leaders to meet three times a month. But Anastasiades said he could only meet once a month.”
“It was important for us that the UN SG congratulated us for our efforts. We also made a proposal for him to invite the two leaders to New York at the end of May so we can inform him about the convergences reached so far.”
“Upon my proposal, Ban Ki-moon told me that he was going to send Feltman to Cyprus and he will evaluate our proposal after Feltman’s visit.”
