‘Try another path on Cyprus dispute’

“NOW we need to try another path on the Cyprus [dispute].” This was the pronouncement of Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Thursday in his opening speech at the International Young Diplomats Education Program.

Speaking at the event in Ankara, organised by the Diplomacy Academy, Mr Çavuşoğlu referred to a series of “frozen conflicts” including Cyprus, Azerbaijan’s territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia in Georgia, South Ossetia and Crimea, as well as ongoing conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya.

Of the Cyprus peace process, he said: “We have been working on finding a political solution. We did our utmost at the Cyprus conference [in Switzerland] last year, yet it failed.

“Elections on the both sides [of the island] are over. Now we need to try another path. We have to come to an agreement on which issues we need to discuss.”