Erdogan: Greek Cypriot Administration Is Worried That It Can't Prevent Entrance Of Its Citizens To Turkey

ANKARA - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday night that probably the Greek Cypriot administration was worried that it could not prevent the entrance of its citizens to Turkey.
Responding to questions of journalists at Esenboga Airport asking ''Greek Cypriot side issues statements saying that your statements about the entrance of Greek Cypriot citizens to Turkey without visa was a maneuver to make TRNC be recognized in the international arena,'' Erdogan said that ''this is not a broad-minded statement. We took all sorts of steps from the beginning showing sacrifices about this issue. Other steps will also be taken. We told that we had expected sacrifice from the other side, too. We took a new step. We told that we opened our doors to Greek Cypriots and we made another sacrifice. In my opinion the Greek Cypriot administration is worried that it could not prevent the entrance of its citizens to Turkey. We are not worried at this stage, our doors are open and we won't launch any efforts to prevent the freedom of anybody to travel and the step we took is a step in this direction. It is at the same time the sign of the tolerant understanding of Turkey towards the Greek Cypriot administration.''
(ÖS) 19.05.2003