Türkiye‘s Foreign Ministry issued a press release Thursday condemning allegations in opposition to a senior ministry official concerned within the 2017 negotiations on Cyprus, saying they’re “unfounded” and “completely untrue.”
“Some sources, referring to a book published abroad, made unfounded allegations against Feridun Sinirlioğlu, the former undersecretary of the Turkish Foreign Ministry, who met with the Greek Cypriot negotiator within the framework of the simultaneous visits of Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot negotiators to Athens and Ankara,” ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgiç mentioned on Twitter.
“These allegations of a compromising attitude to reach a consensus within the framework of these mutual visits are completely untrue,” he mentioned. “The statements of Sinirlioğlu, then Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on our national issues, especially Cyprus, are recorded in state documents and open sources.”
“These baseless allegations, which are part of the efforts of the Greek Cypriot side to shed their responsibility with a sense of guilt, should not be credited,” he added.
Bilgiç mentioned that Türkiye’s Cyprus coverage is obvious and that this coverage is well-known by all events.
DECADES-LONG CYPRUS ISSUE
Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, regardless of a collection of diplomatic efforts by the UN to attain a complete settlement. Ethnic assaults beginning within the early Nineteen Sixties compelled Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for his or her security.
In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup geared toward Greece’s annexation of the island led to Türkiye’s navy intervention as a guarantor energy to guard Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence. As a consequence, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) was based in 1983.
It has seen an on-and-off peace course of lately, together with a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland underneath the auspices of guarantor nations Türkiye, Greece and the UK.
The Greek Cypriot administration entered the European Union in 2004, the identical yr that Greek Cypriots thwarted a UN plan to finish the longstanding dispute.
Source: www.anews.com.tr
