“Turkey has been in favour of de-escalation and dialogue and demonstrated its good faith by responding positively to calls to this end,” said the Turkish Foreign Ministry in a statement, commenting on the European Council’s conclusions in which Turkey’s new unilateral and provocative actions in the Eastern Mediterranean region are strongly disapproved.
The European Council also called on Ankara to respect UN Security Council Resolutions 550 and 789 on the Varosha status.
“It is not surprising that the EU, ignoring once more Turkey’s theses with its usual judgmental and prejudiced posture, identifies Turkey’s determination to defend both its rights and those of the Turkish Cypriots as “provocation” in today’s meeting,” the statement said. “The EU’s continuation of the discourse of sanctions, instead of encouraging dialogue, reconciliation and an unconditional positive agenda, reveals also that the extent of its aim and the language it uses are distant from sincerity and constructiveness.”
The Turkish Foreign Minister also stressed that “following the conclusions adopted at the Special European Council Meeting on 1-2 October, we expected now reciprocal steps in order to achieve concrete results”.
It is also stated, “The EU should focus on solving problems by respecting the rights of Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots in the region with an agenda of common interest and common future.” Hence, it should cease to surrender unconditionally to the irrational and spoiled demands of Greece and the Greek Cypriot side. It should be noted that the language of threats will never yield results regarding Turkey. We expect the EU to deliver concrete, impartial solution-oriented recommendations, which serve our common interests, instead of threatening Turkey,” the statement read.
Source: ANA-MPA