‘We want a TRNC that can stand on its own two feet’
TURKEY wants North Cyprus to become a self-sufficient country, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said on Monday.
He was speaking at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Ersan Saner at the presidential complex in the capital Ankara.
“We desire a progressing TRNC that is self-sufficient, stands on its feet with self-confidence, can produce added value with its industry, agriculture and production besides tourism, has completed the structural reforms needed for its realisation and whose decision-making mechanisms work in the most effective way,” Mr Oktay said according to Turkey’s Anadolu agency.
“In this direction, we said that we, as Turkey, will do whatever we have to do, and we reiterate this will here today.
“We will continue to create a much stronger TRNC together which will carry Turkey-TRNC cooperation and brotherhood to a much further level . . . We have put forward our solution proposals by comprehensively addressing the projects carried out in the TRNC and the developments in the political and economic fields. We also had the opportunity to go through the ongoing projects.”
Mr Oktay said he and Mr Saner evaluated the “actions” agreed within the 2021 Economic and Financial Cooperation Protocol as well as its “shortcomings and the point reached” so far.
On the Cyprus problem, Mr Oktay said that the Greek Cypriot side should “stop seeing themselves as the sole owner of the island” and that they were creating the impression they want a federal solution “that they rejected for years”.
“The Turkish side no longer has time to waste on empty rhetoric and negotiations with an uncertain end,” Mr Oktay warned.
“It is futile to seek solutions within the parameters of the UN that are outdated and do not reflect the consent of both parties.”
He added that there is now a “struggle for survival, independence and the future” of the Turkish Cypriot people and the TRNC.
Mr Saner said that work on the 2021 Economic and Financial Cooperation Protocol is progressing “positively” and that the TRNC had been turned into a “construction site” as a result of various new infrastructure projects.