‘We never give up north Cyprus’

The Turkish European Union minister said yesterday Turkey would never give up its national cause of Northern Cyprus for the sake of Turkey’s EU membership.

European Union Minister Egemen Bagıs said Turkey has a clear stance regarding the Cyprus issue and it is impossible for Turkey to recognize the Greek Cypriot administration as a state, Anatolia news agency reported.

Turkish Cypriots stayed peaceful regarding the matter despite injustices, he said. “It is impossible for Turkey to sit at the table with an administration that is not recognized by Turkey.” Turkey would not regard the Greek Cypriot administration as an interlocutor during its European Union term presidency, but Turkey’s relations with the European Union would continue, he said. Meanwhile, Turkey offers to pay the compensation for Greek Cypriot property in the north by providing them water.

The project aims to carry water from the Dragon River in Anamur, a town of Turkey’s southern province Mersin, to northern Cyprus. Greek Cypriots who met with Turkey’s ambassador to Athens Kerim Uras, former general-director of the Greece-Cyprus desk of the Foreign Ministry, leaked the news, according to Greek Cyprus daily Phileleftheros. The daily said this issue will be discussed in the Greece-Cyprus desk of the Foreign Ministry this week.


/Hurriyet Daily News/