Presidential Spokesman Hasan Erçakıca in his weekly press conference yesterday (7 November) evaluated the failure of the Finnish initiative. Spokesman Hasan Erçakıca said that Greek Cypriot Administration caused the initiative, launched by the EU Term President Finland to avert problems that may arise during Turkey’s EU membership negotiations, to be left inconclusive at this stage.

It has been stated by the TRNC Presidency that the joint efforts of the Greek Cypriot side and Greece directed towards transforming the Cyprus Issue into "an issue of EU" will be met with resistance.

Pointing out to the recent negative stance of Greece, which casts out the Turkish Cypriots, it has been stated that, Greece has been supporting the efforts aimed at transforming the Cyprus Issue into a problem between Turkey and the Greek Cypriot side as if it is not one of the parties involved itself.

Spokesman Erçakıca defined this stance as an indication signaling that Greece will neither have a positive role in the process ahead nor contribute to the settlement of the problem.

Spokesman Erçakıca said that the statements of the EU Term President Finland, in which they said that their efforts on this issue would be maintained, has been welcomed by the Turkish Cypriot side and added "However, for this initiative to result in success, the methods must be carefully chosen and the content must be balanced."

Underlining that the Turkish Cypriot side employed, despite all the difficulties, "a constructive position" supporting the efforts of Finland, spokesman Erçakıca said “the failure lies in the policy of the Greek Cypriot side which aims “to achieve everything without giving anything".

Reminding the statements of the Greek Cypriot side including wording such as "the Turkish Cypriot side has neither a say over Varosha nor can state its opinion concerning the issue", Spokesman Erçakıca said “It has been stated that the initiative by Finland can not be successful unless Varosha is restituted to its legal owners. This kind of approach clearly reveals the efforts of the Greek Cypriot side which from the very beginning were directed towards the failure of the said initiative."

Expressing that the reason behind the deadlock of the process, which was started by the decisions reached on 8 July is the Greek Cypriot side, Presidential Spokesman Hasan Erçakıca said that the Greek Cypriots are striving to transform the Cyprus Issue into "an EU problem".