Google – AFP, 14 December 2013
Turkish
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu speaks during a press conference after
his
meeting with his Greek counterpart in Athens on December 13, 2013 (AFP/File,
Aris Messinis)
|
Nicosia —
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called on the Greek Cypriots Saturday
to make "positive" contributions toward stalled UN-backed peace talks
on the decades-old division of Cyprus.
Davutoglu
spoke during a visit to the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
(TRNC) as part of a recently intensified push to resume the talks.
"We
hope that the Greek Cypriot side will make positive contributions to the active
efforts of the United Nations," Davutoglu said before meeting Turkish
Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu.
"Then,
it will be possible to achieve permanent peace both in the island and in the
eastern Mediterranean," he said.
UN-brokered
negotiations were suspended in mid-2012 when the Turkish Cypriots walked out in
protest at the internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus taking the
European Union's rotating presidency.
Last month,
the Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot leaders met in the buffer zone dividing
the island but no breakthrough was reported.
Davutoglu
also added that the negotiation process would be open ended as long as the
isolation the Turkish Cypriot side remains in place.
"No
one should think that the Turkish Cypriots will give up their rights," he
said.
The
self-declared TRNC is recognised only by Ankara.
Hopes had
been high that negotiations would resume last month, but they stuttered over
the wording of a joint statement on basic principles for the new talks.
Ankara says
the disagreement stems from the Greek Cypriot insistence on including key
parameters of a settlement, including a single sovereignty for a reunified
Cyprus.
The foreign
ministers of Greece and Turkey met in Athens on Friday and called for a
resumption of talks.
But the
Greek Cypriot leader and president of the republic, Nicos Anastasiades, said
the resumption of talks remains a long way off despite recent optimism.
Cyprus has
been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied its northern
third after an Athens-engineered coup in Nicosia seeking to unite Cyprus with
Greece.
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