ANKARA - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that, ''a nice step has been taken. Negotiation process started,'' while speaking about the point reached in Cyprus talks in New York.
When a journalist asked, ''a specific point has been reached on Cyprus question. It is evaluated as a success gained after 40 years. Do you think this is a success or an early evaluation?'' Erdogan said, ''I think such kind of evaluations made so far are early for me. A nice step has been taken. Negotiation process started. I hope that the nice developments should be reflected in the result. I hope a fair and permanent solution will be found. I hope that those problems in Cyprus will be removed.''
Erdogan said, ''I thank to TRNC, southern Cyprus, Greece, all the international institutions in the world and the other countries for their contributions to this process. I hope this process to end positively for our brothers in TRNC. All our efforts are to this end. We will be in an effort to solve this problem without allowing any speculation. We appreciate good-will mission of the U.N. Secretary General from the very beginning. We are trying to contribute to this process wishing it to reflect in the result.''
(AY) 14.02.2004