In a written statement issued by the Prime Ministry yesterday (6 December), reminding that political parties had called upon the Greek and Turkish Cypriot sides to engage in dialogue regarding the opening of the Lokmacı border gate, said the Prime Minister fully supported this view but the allegations and negative stance adopted by the Greek Cypriot Leadership on the issue was preventing dialogue.

Indicating that the Turkish Cypriot side wanted this border gate to be opened as soon as possible and that its ongoing efforts were aimed at further developing and strengthening relations between the two peoples and didn't want this initiative to be left unanswered or fail, as happened in the Bostanci gate, the statement said the following:

"Our view that there should be immediate contacts and negotiations between the Turkish and Greek Cypriot Leaderships in order to achieve a Cyprus settlement is still valid. It's uncertain how this process could start when Papadopoulos even rejected the proposal made by his coalition partner and unconditional ally AKEL, to meet socially with President Talat.

It should be known that the Turkish Cypriot side is ready for the dialogue not just on the issue of opening the border gates but also on issues such as preventing crime, drugs and people trafficking and our calls made in this direction are still valid. It should always be kept in mind that the Papadopoulos administration had even refused to talk with us on a serious issue as health such as Bird Flu and that the communal view should thus be developed accordingly".

The statement also stressed that the TRNC still supported the immediate start of negotiations on the basis of the Annan Plan with the aim of finding a settlement under the umbrella of the UN.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ferdi Sabit Soyer and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Serdar Denktas yesterday (6 December) went to inspect the ongoing works that are being carried out at the Lokmacı border gate.

Prime Minister Soyer said the Lokmacı border gate symbolized the partition, which was the result of the conflict that took place between the two sides in 1958 and 1963, and once the island started to shape itself as two separate areas after 1974 this area lost its characteristic of being a crossing point, and became a permanent wall that symbolized the conflict.

For his part, Serdar Denktas said at the point reached, in order to ensure the safe crossing of civilians over the gate, the bridge would serve as a footpath for a temporary period.

Continuing, he said:

"What's most important is what's in the minds of those people who are standing on that wall. If they knock down the wall in their brain they'll see that there are people who are just as equal as them and are the other co-owners of this island. If they resist knocking down this wall, then they'll be solely responsible for the island's permanent division. The Greek Cypriot side's biggest helper in this is the international community, who constantly says that they have no authority in the South. Today, I'm calling out to the international community from this settlement bridge: 'Unless you treat the island's two co-owners equally, the Greek Cypriot administration, which is currently violating the rights of the Turkish Cypriots, will never approach a settlement. If you want a settlement on the island your main principle should be to treat the two sides as equals, there is no other way…"

Former Greek Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Rolandis confessed that the Greek Cypriot side was also responsible for the political situation in Cyprus.

Rolandis highlighted that what was expressed in the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's latest report about what Greek Cypriot Leader Tassos Papadopoulos had said about there being some new movements on the Cyprus issue was not true.

Rolandis said the international community didn't believe and was not interested in the Greek Cypriot side because the Greek Cypriot side had created the impression that it didn't want a settlement and didn't take the responsibility for its mistakes.

Continuing, Rolandis said:

"All the plans presented to us by the UN were approved by the Security Council. The Annan Plan was approved in the European Parliament and European Commission with a 90% majority. Commission representative Gunther Verheugen had also said we'd deceived the EU just so that we could become and EU member and gain some advantages, that we had no intention of settling the Cyprus problem, and that the EU didn't believe we wanted to achieve a settlement. Unfortunately we don't want to understand all this and because we can't understand it we will not be able to settle the Cyprus problem.

From the moment we rejected the Annan Plan, it became evident that we had no intention of settling the Cyprus problem at a time when there could have been a settlement and framework.

When talking about the Cyprus issue there is one thing that none of us understands and that is from the establishment of the Republic onwards we too were responsible for the political outcome of the Cyprus problem. Some Greek Cypriots believe they suffered and others believe that the other side (north) also belongs to them. Greek Cypriots don't understand and don't want to understand that during the last 45 years since 1960, the sins we committed, especially during the 1960-74 period, were much more than the problems created by the Turkish Cypriots.