Turkey's Erdogan: 'Two separate states' solution for Cyprus

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on a visit to the Turkish-occupied north of Cyprus that the negotiations about the divided island should aim for a settlement between “two separate states”, the Turkish Presidential Office announced yesterday.

Talks in the past have aimed for a reunification of the Mediterranean island, which is split between the Greek-speaking Republic of Cyprus, an EU member with effective control over the island’s southern two thirds, and the breakaway north occupied by Turkey since 1974.

One of the top officials of European Union said yesterday that the EU is ready to support negotiations and play an active role in finding a permanent solution to the Cyprus issue.

According to the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, the EU is fully committed to unification within the framework of the UN and along the lines of the founding principles of the EU, on the basis of a federation with a comprehensive solution to the Cyprus problem and bi-zonal, bi-communal political equality.

Borrell also expressed regret over the opening of the coastline of the closed town of Maras (Varosha) in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) in October and over statements that contradict UN principles for resolving the Cyprus problem.

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