Greek Defense Minister Panos Beglitis slammed as ‘unacceptable’ statements by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who warned that Ankara will freeze its relations with the European Union, should Cyprus hold the EU presidency without a previous solution of the Cyprus issue. Nicosia is scheduled to lead the rotating EU presidency in the second half of 2012.
“I believe that the international community and the European Union needs to bend over and analyze these statements, which show that for the Turkish Prime Minister, despite the communication games, recent and past, one thing is true: that they do not want to solve Cyprus” said Beglitis, currently visiting the divided island. “We favorite a solution within the framework of the UN and the EU, not just a solution” Beglitis added.
On the anniversary of the Cyprus invesion by Turkish troops in 1974, and while visiting the occupied north, a provocative Tayyip Erdogan declared that “there is no state of Cyprus,there is just the North and the South. There are two states. We do not take a step back after what they did with the Annan plan.”
