No time for years-long talks on Cyprus, says Cavusoglu

By Tugcenur Yilmaz and Murat Demirci

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey wants result-oriented negotiations in Cyprus, the country's foreign minister said on Friday.

"We need to see the realities. We have no time and energy for years-long negotiations," Mevlut Cavusoglu said at the Turkish Cypriot coastal town of Girne as he received an honorary doctorate at Girne American University.

"We have seen that it is pointless to be bound with a single option with a patronizing approach," he said, stressing all options must be discussed.

Cavusoglu said that Greek Cypriots apparently were not ready to share anything with the Turks amid the Crans-Montana process.

"Initiating a new negotiation, without seeing these facts, is nothing but a dream," he said.

Cavusoglu recalled that there were not any developments regarding the administration, power sharing, political equality and property in the Cyprus conference held in Switzerland's Crans-Montana, and said the Greek side took steps "backwards" in line with the agreements and continues to do so.

- Greek Cypriot side 'nowhere near solution'

He further asserted that the Greek side began stipulating harsh conditions in areas such as authorization sharing and the participation of the Turkish vote in decision-making.

Turkish officials were at the table for a federal solution with specified parameters, Cavusoglu said.

"The Greek Cypriot side has not come near a solution, and will not in the coming process," Cavusoglu said, underlining that this "reality" was observed by the UN secretary general, guarantor U.K. and observer EU.

Cyprus was divided into a Turkish Cypriot state in the north and a Greek Cypriot administration in the south after a 1974 military coup was followed by violence against the island’s Turks and Turkey’s intervention as a guarantor power.

The status of the island remains unresolved in spite of a series of negotiations over the years.

An initiative in Crans-Montana, Switzerland in July 2017 under the auspices of guarantor countries Turkey, Greece, and the U.K. ended in failure.