Talat's speech to mark the Republic Day

President Mehmet Ali Talat said that Turkish Cypriots, by establishing the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, have, in effect, declared to the world “its wish to become a People governing itself and who is not a local extension of another authority from the outside”.

Addressing the ceremony held at the Dr Fazil Kucuk Boulevard, President Talat said that the Turkish Cypriot People does not necessarily have to try to prove to the Greek Cypriot Administration that it is a partner sharing the sovereignty of Cyprus.

“Similarly, the Turkish Cypriots do not feel obliged to prove to the European Union, that they are a European community” he said.

Mr Talat said, and I quote: “We have been living in this house, and will continue to do so in the future. Turkish Cypriots get their right to self-governance from their own history.

“The Greek Cypriot side has, itself, disproved - by rejecting the solution Plan for Cyprus – its own claim that Turkish Cypriots were the stumbling block in the way for a solution to the Cyprus problem” unquote.

He said the Greek Cypriot side’s rejection of the Annan Plan was the result of a state-sponsored campaign against a solution to the Cyprus problem and peace.

Reminding that even the UN Secretary General has clearly said that the rejection of the plan was not the rejection of the blueprint alone, but also of a solution to the Cyprus problem; Mr Talat also recalled how the UN Secretary General had, then, complained of “having been deceived by the Greek Cypriot leader” who, he said, had said he would support the Plan.

Accusing the Greek Cypriot administration of challenging the whole international community by blocking the efforts aimed at lifting the international isolation of North Cyprus, President Talat said the Greek Cypriot side is trying to alter the parameters - agreed upon – in more than fifty years or so.

Mr. Talat said the Greek Cypriot leadership even took the impudent step to announce – at the UN General Assembly - its intention to assimilate the Turkish Cypriot People as a solution to the Cyprus problem.

Underlining the importance of the fact that the Turkish Cypriot People will be the only collocutor of the Greek Cypriot side in such process, Mr. Talat stressed that “the Turkish Cypriot People cannot be represented by anybody else other than its democratically elected representatives”.

“How long will the Greek Cypriot administration continue to isolate the Turkish Cypriot People – and, in doing that, how long will it continue to benefit from the advantages of being a member of the UN and the EU” he asked.

Repeating that the Turkish Cypriot People has been waiting for the international community and the European Union to act to end the unjustified isolation of the Turkish Cypriot People, the TRNC President reminded that – on numerous occasions – the Turkish Cypriot side has expressed its readiness to take part in serious negotiations for a solution to the Cyprus problem.

“We are a European People which has governed itself for 450 years, and which considers Cyprus its homeland – at least as much as the other communities of the island” he said.

Mr. Talat added that as the Turkish Cypriot People is fully capable to govern itself, it is also determined to continue to work to achieve political equality in a future federal Cyprus, and, eventually, take its place among other members of the European Union.

^ Top of Page