Turkey’s AKP returns to Greek defence minister statements on Cyprus invasion
Greece wants to “swallow all of Cyprus” Turkey’s ruling party (AKP) member Omer Çelik said on Wednesday.
The statement comes as the latest in a series of barbs set off by the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, termed a “peacekeeping operation” by Turkey.
Çelik took issue with statements made by Greece’s Defence Minister Nikos Dendias during his recent visit to Cyprus.
During a trip to Nicosia, Dendias had said that the invasion was “illegal, totally contrary to international law.”
“The statements of the defence minister of Greece show that they have no will for a federal solution and that they want to swallow the whole of Cyprus. But this will not be possible in any way,” Çelik said.
In further statements after a meeting of his party, Çelik said “we celebrated with enthusiasm the 50th anniversary of the peace operation [which constitutes] one of the important stages [for] the case of Turkish Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriot people.”
The Greek minister’s statements demonstrated that Turkey must intensify its current position, Çelik said.
“From now on we should vigorously protect the values behind the peace operation. The Greek minister of defence aggressively repeated the rhetoric of the past,” he said.
According to Çelik “the peacekeeping operation actually not only produced results that protected the Turks but also saved [them] from the hands of [such] gangs.”
A federal solution was clearly not feasible, the Turkish politician said.
“The whole world now sees that a federal solution is not possible, as our president [Recep Tayyip Erdoğan] also stated, he said.