LEFKOSA - Prime Minister Dervis Eroglu of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) said on Monday that they were not surprised by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's efforts to show the Turkish side as the only responsible side of the failure in a report he was going to submit to the U.N. Security Council.
Releasing a statement, Eroglu said, ''this situation was caused by wrong evaluations of Alvaro De Soto and his team and diplomats like Lord Hannay who acts as their mentor. Everybody knows about the targets of this team and powers behind them.''
Stressing that all good will initiatives displayed by the Turkish Cypriot side during process of face-to-face talks had been ignored, Eroglu said, ''failure of this staff who put forward this plan which foresees a hard pressed schedule that is completely indexing European Union enlargement process with a timing that lacks good intention by giving in to oppressive recommendations of Britain and the United States, was inevitable. Authorities who seek a responsible in the current stage should not accuse the Turkish Cypriot side which initiated the process of face-to-face talks but they should seek the responsibility in the circles which suppose they could impose a solution which is far away from being livable through external pressure.''
It was again the Turkish Cypriot side which developed new initiatives and made new proposals when Annan's plan which would inevitably annihilate Turkish Cypriots in long term after considering them a minority with the arrangements it foresaw, Eroglu said and noted that the Greek Cypriot side had refused those proposals even without feeling the need for making a serious assessment.
''Our proposals based a just and livable agreement first of all on the principle of mutual confidence, and they were the proposals which would not harm current position of the sides. However, the Greek Cypriot side showed a quick reflex and refused those proposals. Besides they took so-called measures which humiliate our people as if they were citizens having minority status of the so-called 'Cyprus republic' which they have usurped since 1964 by ignoring that fact that the Turkish Cypriots have their own state on the island. Those measures which were published in the Greek Cypriot press prove how much our interlocutors lack good will,'' Eroglu noted.
(MS) 07.04.2003