Ankara will continue efforts to develop a “culture of cooperation” between the two sides on the island of Cyprus in good faith and in close consultation with the Turkish Cypriot side in the coming period, the Foreign Ministry said Friday.
Ministry spokesperson Öncü Keçeli said that the developments since the Geneva meeting in March were evaluated at the informal Cyprus meeting in New York.
Keçeli noted that the desired level of progress has been achieved in establishing the Youth Technical Committee, restoring cemeteries, and addressing environmental and climate change issues.
He also said that the parties are very close to reaching an agreement that will allow work to begin on the island's mine clearance issue, with only some technical details remaining to be finalized.
Keçeli added that despite all the efforts of the U.N. and the constructive efforts of the Turkish side, progress has not yet been achieved on the remaining two of the six topics identified in March: the opening of four new border gates and solar power electricity generation in the buffer zone.
"While the Turkish side, in good faith, accepted the U.N.'s proposed compromise regarding the border gates, the Greek Cypriot side's insistence on new conditions at every stage, its failure to keep its promises, and its persistent rehashing of proposals it has repeated for years and which have not been accepted have made it impossible to reach a conclusion,” he said, indicating that the Greek Cypriot side's also hindered progress on solar power electricity generation in the buffer zone.
