Ankara reacted strongly to the announcement of the appointment of the European Commission’s Executive Vice President, Raffaele Fito, as the EU’s Special Representative for the Cyprus issue.

The announcement comes while consultations are underway to convene a new Multilateral Conference aimed at resuming substantive talks on the Cyprus issue.

The spokesperson for the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Onju Ketçeli, was quick to reject this appointment and the EU’s involvement in the Cyprus issue, while reiterating the extreme position of a “two-state” solution to the Cyprus issue.

The statement by the Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson is as follows:

“As with similar appointments in the past, we consider the European Commission’s decision to reappoint a ‘Special Representative for Cyprus’ as an internal matter of the European Union (EU).

We reiterate once again that the EU, by accepting the Greek Cypriot side as a member of the EU despite its rejection of the UN Comprehensive Settlement Plan in 2004, has lost its impartiality regarding the Cyprus issue.

Indeed, we have observed that the thoroughly biased approach of the EU institutions, particularly the European Parliament, toward the Cyprus issue has continued and has become even more pronounced in recent years.

We expect the official newly appointed by the European Commission to work toward changing the EU’s biased stance and to recognize the fact that a solution to the Cyprus problem can be achieved only through negotiations between two equal sovereign states based on the realities on the island.”

Source: Proto Thema