Presidential Spokesman Hasan Erçakıca in his weekly press statement, referring to the allegation made by the Greek Cypriot Spokesman Christodoulos Pashardis to the effect that they have invited the Turkish Cypriot side via the United Nations to establish dialogue for the opening of the Lokmacı Gate, stated that no such call or invitation has been delivered to the Turkish Cypriot side. The statement issued yesterday (4 January) is as follows:

"In his statement, which found its place in today’s Greek Cypriot newspapers, Greek Cypriot Spokesman Mr. Christodoulos Pashardis claimed that they have, via the United Nations, invited the Turkish Cypriot side to establish dialogue for the opening of the Lokmacı gate.

In spite of the fact that Pashardis made the same statement on Friday last week, no such call or invitation has been delivered to the Turkish Cypriot side. Considering that delivery of such an initiative might have been delayed because of the religious holiday, which started last weekend in the TRNC, we still have not received any invitation regarding the issue.

It is evident that the effort of the Greek Cypriot side is to meet the persistent demands coming from both sides for the opening of the Lokmacı gate with such tricks and render them ineffective. As a matter of fact, it can be observed that Greek Cypriot side keeps finding a pretext for obstructing the opening of the Lokmacı gate.