The President of the Autonomous Republic of Gagauz Mikhail Makrovich Formuzal, who arrived in the TRNC to attend the Near East University’s graduation ceremony, met with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Turgay Avcý yesterday(24 June).

During the visit, Formuzal stated that although their country is far away from the Turkish world they maintained their own language and traditions.

Explaining that their population was 155 thousand but they still existed in the Turkish world, Formuzal said Turks have started to get more united in the global world. He added that they also wanted to be included in this process.

Pointing out that the relations between the TRNC and Gagauz should be improved, Formuzal said they found the Near East University and the TRNC very nice and wanted to develop relations in every field.

Calling on the TRNC businessmen to make investments in the Autonomous Republic of Gagauz, the Gagauzian President said in that case, TRNC businessmen will be provided thousands of hectares of lands, and they will also be freed from paying taxes for 5 years.

Welcoming the President, Foreign Minister Turgay Avcý stated that work is underway to improve trade, economic, cultural and sports relations between the two countries. He added that there will be studies to develop relations in the field of education as well.

Foreign Minister Avcý stated that they will also visit Gagauz with the aim of discussing the ways of improving relations between the two countries adding that this was a beginning of the relations which will develop.

The Greek Cypriot leader Mr. Demetris Christofias has recently been issuing recurrent statements regarding Turkey. Mr. Christofias has been saying that the political developments in Turkey have been posing an obstacle before the commencement of comprehensive settlement negotiations for the Cyprus problem.

The position of Turkey regarding the Cyprus problem is clear enough. Not only it has reiterated many times that it supports reaching a just and lasting settlement for the Cyprus problem by providing its support for the settlement process, but it has also essentially proven this position of theirs by providing support to the UN Comprehensive Settlement Plan.

The allegations of Mr. Christofias that the political developments in Turkey are hindering or will hinder the settlement of the Cyprus problem are unfounded. All the institutions and authorities in Turkey support the efforts spent for a settlement. In fact, during this new process President Mr. Mehmet Ali Talat and Mr. Demetris Christofias have launched, they only received the support of Turkey.

While such is the case in Turkey, the fact that Mr. Christofias attempts to include the developments in domestic policy of Turkey or the expectations to that end into the negotiation process and to present this issue as if it is the “most important problem” during all his foreign contacts along with his efforts trying to name Turkey as its counterpart for the settlement of the Cyprus problem is nothing but a delaying tactic for the settlement process.

No pretext that will be brought up to hamper the settlement process will be accepted on our behalf. Therefore, these pretexts the Greek Cypriot Leader Mr. Demetris Christofias puts forward are not acceptable for us.

The counterpart of Mr. Demetris Christofias is President Mr. Mehmet Ali Talat and as announced before, he has the full support of Turkey. The only thing Mr. Christofias has to do is to make commencement of the comprehensive settlement negotiations possible and work for the just and early settlement of the Cyprus problem.

As agreed last week, in accordance with the 21 March agreement, President Mehmet Ali Talat and the Greek Cypriot Leader Mr. Demetris Christofias will meet again on 1 July 2008, Tuesday.

As it is known, this meeting’s agenda covers the assessment of the works of the Working Groups and Technical Committees and the resumption of the comprehensive settlement negotiations as agreed on 21 March 2008. This is the agreed agenda of this meeting.

The 21 March agreement envisaged that the full fledged settlement negotiations would commence three months later by reviewing the results of the works of the Working Groups and the Technical Committees. The Turkish Cypriot side is still committed to this agreement. This meeting was scheduled to be held in the second half of June but could not take place because of Mr. Christofias’ foreign visits. As the representatives of the two leaders, Mr. Ozdil Nami and Mr. Georges Iacovou have decided on 1 July 2008, Tuesday as the date for the meeting.