ANKARA - Mehmet Ali Talat, Prime Minister of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and Serdar Denktas, the Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, arrived in Ankara on Tuesday.
Speaking at Ankara's Esenboga Airport, Talat said they visited Turkey to make evaluations regarding the point they reached in Cyprus talks, noting that both them and Turkish foreign ministry needed this evaluation.
Talat said there was not any deadlock in talks, yet that there was a need for a high level negotiation.
Talat said they would meet with Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul.
TALAT: GREEK CYPRIOT SIDE'S ATTITUDE CREATES DIFFICULTY IN GOING FURTHER IN NEGOTIATIONS
Speaking at Ankara's Esenboga Airport, Talat said that he and Serdar Denktas, the Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of TRNC came to Ankara for a one day visit and they would hold meetings regarding the point they reached in Cyprus negotiations.
Talat said they would meet with Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul and officials from Foreign Ministry in Ankara and stated that both Ankara and they needed to make assessment on the issue. Talat added that he offered to visit Ankara.
Talat said that they were not scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Upon a question on negotiations continuing in Cyprus, Talat said that they aimed not to leave any gap to be filled by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, even by Turkey and Greece, but he added that if negotiations continued with this speed, there would probably be need for it.
Stating that they approached the issue very seriously, Talat said that a ''single path'' was entered and Annan was waiting for them at the end of this path.
''It is not possible yet to know how Greek Cypriot side's attitude will develop. They rejected our proposals by saying that those are unacceptable without discussing them. It creates difficulty in recording further progress in negotiations,'' he noted.
Talat said that issues like political equality and security were among sine qua nons of Turkish side and added that they were making preliminary studies for a process of give-and-take which would not cover those issues.
(EÖ-AÖ) 02.03.2004