Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Talat reacted strongly to claims made by the Greek Cypriot Justice Minister, Doros Theodorou, that there were training camps for Chechen militants in the TRNC and that these militants were preparing for an attack in Russia.

Referring to Theodorou’s claims that there were terrorists also from other countries based in the TRNC, Prime Minister Talat said this allegation was because of Greek Cypriot paranoia.

The Prime Minister stated that it was a well known fact that Greek Cypriots were always inventing similar stories, which were sometimes mentioned in the Greek Cypriot dailies or brought up by Greek Cypriot politicians. He said in the past there were also similar allegations. "The TRNC is a free democratic and transparent country. There is no place for terrorism in the TRNC", stressed Prime Minister Talat.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Serdar Denktas, who is currently in New York to attend the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) Foreign Ministers Meeting, yesterday (28 September) organized a press conference in New York.

Pointing out that although 65% of the Turkish Cypriot people voted ‘yes’ to the island’s reunification in the April 24 referendum in Cyprus, they had not gained anything, Serdar Denktas said by voting ‘yes’ nothing had changed in Cyprus.

Explaining that it would be a long time before there were direct flights to the TRNC, Serdar Denktas stressed that the embargo imposed on international transport constituted the main factor of the TRNC’s isolation and before direct flights started one could not say that the isolation imposed on the Turkish Cypriots would be lifted.

Stating that the Turkish Cypriot people were angry and disappointed with the international community for not carrying out their promises made to the Turkish Cypriots (before the referendum), Serdar Denktas said the Turkish Cypriot people should not be punished for voting ‘yes’, all they wanted was their rights, not a prize.

Underlining that the United Nations should play a more active role in the Cyprus issue, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs said the UN should take a specific resolution regarding what the TRNC’s status would be in the international arena and it was time for the article stating that the ‘TRNC should not be recognized’ to be lifted.

He also stated that it was pointless for the UN Peace-Keeping Forces to continue its term of duty in Cyprus because there was no longer a duty to perform in Cyprus.

Responding to a question asked about what the TRNC’s representation would be in the OIC-EU Forum Meeting, that will take place in Istanbul between 4-5 October, Serdar Denktas, pointing out that the EU had requested the TRNC not to use the title of the "Cyprus Turkish State" at the meeting, said this was unacceptable. He said:

"There’s an organization and this (OIC-EU) Forum is one of the two organizations which has accepted the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to have an observer status within the organization under the title of the ‘Cyprus Turkish State’. There’s a resolution to this effect that was taken at the Istanbul summit meeting. Although the EU, which is the other party that will participate in this meeting, may not accept us as the ‘Cyprus Turkish State’, it is the wrong approach to ask the OIC to ‘revoke this resolution’. However, in our bilateral contacts with OIC member countries, we’ve observed that they’ll stand by the resolution they took in Istanbul. Therefore, we don’t think there’ll be a problem".

Referring to the possibility of amending the Annan Plan and putting it to another referendum, Serdar Denktas said this wasn’t easy to do and it was a plan that had been approved and voted on by the Turkish Cypriot side. He said even the smallest amendment would result in putting this plan to a new referendum. He said the Turkish Cypriot side would have to carefully think about whether or not this situation would lead to new conflicts amongst the Turkish Cypriot people and that was why the UN General Secretariat, even if it had considered putting the plan to another referendum, had said it wouldn’t be that easy to put the plan to a second referendum.