Foreign Minister Nami: “If Negotiations Start Immediately, Solution Is Possible In The New Year”

Foreign Minister Nami: “If Negotiations Start Immediately, Solution Is Possible In The New Year”

Minister of Foreign Affairs Özdil Nami replied the Greek Cypriot leader Anastasiades, who said “this problem will be solved by Christmas”.

Speaking to Havadis newspaper during an interview, which was published yesterday (20.10.2013), Özdil Nami reminded 1 July 2008 agreement to the Greek Cypriot leader Anastasiades, who attached  the establishment of a settlement in Christmas to “the single sovereignty and single citizenship”. Nami said “by focusing on the remaining issues, we hope that a rapid process could be concluded with success”.

Noting that it was vital for the leaders  to start the comprehensive settlement negotiations immediately, Nami added “the structure of the comprehensive settlement is obvious.  At this phase, it is impossible to establish a federal structure against all the works put forth until today. Moreover, the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council are very clear”.

Pointing out that the Cyprus problem did not have any aspect, which was not discussed, Foreign Minister Nami said the main problem was about preparing the peoples for a solution, besides its content. Referring to the Greek Cypriot approach of bringing some of their sensitive issues into the forefront, Nami said some political parties, basing their policies on these issues were playing a key role and there were difficulties to overcome them.

Explaining that people had different expectations from Anastasiadis as a leader who said “yes” to the Annan plan, Nami said: “These expectations have not been realized yet. We hope that in the coming period, they find a way to overcome these problems originating from their internal politics. They have recently brought forward the issue of Maraş (Varosha) in order to overcome this. However, it is out of question for the Turkish Cypriot side to make concessions on the territory for Anastasiadis to solve the internal problems”.