EROĞLU: “BOTH UN AND SOUTH CYPRUS LEAN TOWARDS DISCUSSION OF CONFIDENCE BUILDING MEASURES”

TRNC President Derviş Eroğlu said: “We can understand each other better by discussing confidence building measures instead of negotiating for nothing”.

President stated that the UN Secretary General will be active following the leadership elections to be held in South Cyprus, however Turkish Cypriot people do not tolerate another 48 years for negotiations and there should be a time-limit.

Reminding that his competitor, Christofias made an announcement that “he would not be a candidate because he lost his hopes for a solution”, Eroğlu said “Greek Cypriot side does not intend for an agreement. The election discussions have already started in South Cyprus. Although he will not be a candidate within these election discussions, he represents a population. Under these conditions, it is not possible for us to be in an endeavor for reaching a solution”.

Pointing out that UN Secretary General has also put forth the opinion that “to expect a positive result in the negotiations to be held after 1st July is an imagination”, the President stated that at this stage, to carry on the essence oriented negotiations will be meaningless.

Eroğlu said “at this stage, we proposed to discuss confidence building measures. There are active technical committees established before in addition to the confidence building measures to be prepared by them and us. The opinion ‘we can evaluate the time by discussing the confidence building measures packages’ has been introduced”. Stating that Greek Cypriot side also agrees and UN Secretary General’s Special Advisor Alexander Downer has used the expressions that this could be possible, Eroğlu expressed that UN Secretary General has leaned towards this opinion.

President EroÄŸlu stated that if Greek Cypriot side continues to behave with the thought that every positive attitude can be vetoed by taking the support of Russia, China and France in Security Council, it will be difficult to expect a positive step to be taken by Greek Cypriots.

HUGHES WILL DEMAND UK’S SUPPORT

Deputy President of the coalition partner of UK government Liberal democrats Simon Hughes stated that he would demand UK government’s support in order to continue the negotiations starting from 2013 again.

Hughes visited the leader of the Republican Turkish Party-United Forces (CTP-BG), Ozkan Yorgancıoglu within the framework of political party visits in the TRNC. In his speech following the meeting, Hughes said that the agreement to be reached should represent all sides not only the ruling parties.

Moreover, adding that he will discuss the method to be followed for the negotiations with the authorities in Ankara and in his country, Hughes said ‘I think that I determined the method to be followed. When I go to Ankara and then to my country, I will try to take the support of UK government and the foreign ministry’.

As an answer to a question whether Liberal Democrats consider to put into practice the Direct Trade Regulation or not, Hughes said ‘All issues should be discussed at the negotiation table. We have seen the positive results of the Green Line Regulation. ‘We want to see a comprehensive solution as soon as possible. Opening of more checkpoints and developing the trade between the two sides may be fruitful’.

THE RATE OF UNEMPLOYMENT DECREASED TO 9.7

State Planning Organization Department of Statistics and Research made a survey and stated that according to that survey the number of the unemployed is 10,411 and number of employed are 97,103 which means 9.7 unemployed rate in general for TRNC. On the same survey it was mentioned that the population of TRNC increased from 263,650 to 266,087 from October 2010 to October 2011.