LEFKOSA - President Rauf Denktas of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) has said, ''we have recorded once again the importance of bizonal structure based on two sovereign nations during today's negotiations to prevent any attempt to refer Cyprus as if it was a unitarian state.''
Holding a press conference on Thursday following the fourth round of Cyprus negotiations with the Greek Cypriot side, President Denktas said, ''Greek Cypriot leader Tassos Papadopoulos asked for amendments to form a sound central government because of his meetings with the European Union (EU). As putting these amendments forward, Papadopoulos said, 'functionability is essential. This process should not be stopped when one of the sides says no'.''
''These may be rightful reasons; however, we, as the Turkish side which knew that the Greek Cypriot side destroyed the agreements of 1960 by claiming that it was not functional, determined our position after a long-standing negotiation as follows: The Turkish side should not object to issues that are in favor of Cyprus and both sides,'' he said.
Noting that such a thing did not occur even between the years of 1960 and 1963, President Denktas said, ''they disseminated propaganda to the whole world by claiming that Dr. Fazil Kucuk had prevented the government from working with vetoes. In fact, Dr. Kucuk used his vetoed only once against the military law just as Papadopoulos said today.''
Underlining that there are two peoples in Cyprus and their interests can be different in some cases, Denktas added, ''we have recorded once again the importance of bizonal structure based on two sovereign nations during today's negotiations to prevent any attempt to refer Cyprus as if it was a unitarian state and to prevent removal of existence of two peoples under the pretext of functionability.''
(UK-AÖ) 26.02.2004