PRIME MINISTER TALAT: "NEW TANKS HAVE NOT BEEN BROUGHT IN"
Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Talat referring to the
allegations made by a Greek Cypriot television channel that the Turkish
Cypriot side had brought in new tanks from the port of Famagusta, said this
was a lie and that the Greek Cypriot side was trying to change the agenda.
Pointing out that it was a well known fact that the
Turkish Armed Forces sometimes brought in and took out arms (from the TRNC)
for modernisation and maintenance purposes, Prime Minister Talat said the
Turkish Armed Forces didn't need a military concentration in the TRNC.
Explaining that the whole world was against the Turkish
Cypriots paying the price for a non-settlement, because of the Greek Cypriot
leader, Tassos Papadopoulos', intransigent stance, the Prime Minister said
if it was Papadopoulos who was preventing a settlement then he should pay
the price for this, not the Turkish Cypriots. He added: "Everybody,
including the EU, doesn't like this situation and wants it to change.
Papadopoulos is losing support and becoming isolated. In order to conceal
this reality that's why he is trying to distort the agenda through such an
offensive attack".
