President Akinci has said that they do not want a repeat of the Annan Plan [the plan was largely rejected by the Greek Cypriot side in a referendum in 2004’] He added that “we have to produce such an agreement that both the Greek Cypriots’ ‘no’ vote turns into ‘yes’ and the Turkish Cypriots’ ‘yes’ vote remains unchanged”.
In statements yesterday during a meeting with a delegation from Turkey’s Building Constructors Union, Akinci noted that this is not an easy task. It was anticipated as being a difficult process and that the road has its ups and downs. The picture is neither black nor rosy, he said.
Chairman of the Turkish Building Constructors’ Union, Mithat Yenigun said that they visited North Cyprus to sign a protocol of cooperation with Turkish Cypriot Building Constructors. He noted that they wish to establish consortiums and spread all over the world, adding that, to date, they are active in 104 countries.
Akinci said that this cooperation is particularly important during this period for Cyprus. The process of building Cyprus’ future is under way and that all they wish is for the negotiations to be concluded with a peace agreement acceptable by both sides.
He noted that they realize that new horizons will appear with an early solution of the Cyprus problem and that Turkey’s EU accession process will be speeded up. He argued that Turkey’s good relations with the EU benefit Cyprus as well.
Akinci expressed the view that if a sensible way is found for exploiting the energy resources in the Eastern Mediterranean, everybody will win. He said that the reasonable way is for the Israeli and Cypriot natural gas to be united and transferred to Europe through Turkey.
He noted that Turkey’s North Cyprus water transfer project could benefit the whole island.
Havadis
