Celik | “Turkish soldiers are not leaving Cyprus”

“Turkish soldiers are not an occupying force in Cyprus, they are there to stay, they are there as a peacekeeping force,” said a spokesman for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Speaking following the meeting of his party’s Central Committee, Omer Celik said that “the Turkish army is not an occupying force in Cyprus, on the contrary, it is a peacekeeping force.”

“Turkish soldiers went there to prevent massacre, to prevent genocide and to prevent oppression,” he said.

As he said, when we look at the actions taken from time to time, we unfortunately see that some groups that still support such massacres are still engaged in racist approaches, “therefore the Turkish soldiers are there to stay, the Turkish soldiers are not leaving Cyprus, the Turkish soldiers are there as a peacekeeping force. In no case can they be characterized as an occupying force.”

Regarding the guarantees, Omer Celik said that “from time to time they say that the regime of guarantees and the military presence is something outdated. Neither the guarantee regime is outdated nor the conditions for which our soldiers went there have disappeared,” the AKP spokesman said. “On the contrary,” he added, “the Greek sector – this is what he called the Republic of Cyprus – officially declares a lack of will to share natural resources in the eastern Mediterranean with our brothers in “northern Cyprus” (the occupied areas). They also officially declare their reluctance to live with our brothers as an equal sovereign community and are opposed to the two-state solution,” he continued.

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Source: CNA