Oktay: ‘Arguments put forward by Greece and the Greek Cypriots are baseless according to international law’
In an interview published in ‘Kriter’ Magazine, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said ‘The arguments put forward by Greece and the Greek Cypriots are baseless according to international law and the world will recognise Turkey’s rightness sooner or later’. Oktay pointed out that Turkey had an obligation to defend the legitimate rights and interests of the Turkish Cypriots and added ‘Turkey has no designs on the rights and territories of any other country’.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry made a written statement on Friday (2nd October 2020) and stressed that some elements of the European Union summit decisions concerning Turkey were positive, but many areas were “divorced from realities”.
The statement also drew attention to the fact that no reference was made to the Turkish Cypriots in the summit decisions. It said that the failure of the decisions to mention the fair distribution of revenues of the island’s hydrocarbon resources was proof of the continuing mentality that ignored the Turkish Cypriots. The statement read “As we have repeatedly stated before, the interlocutor of Greek Cypriots until the Cyprus problem is solved remains with the Turkish Cypriots, not Turkey. There can be no negotiation of maritime jurisdiction areas with the Greek Cypriot Administration in any platform that does not include the Turkish Cypriots. This can only happen after the Cyprus problem is solved”.