President Derviş Eroğlu, in his address at the opening night of the 3rd Culture and Art Festival in Yeşiltepe village said: “If all of us claim our state, the hand of the people sitting at the negotiation table will be strengthened,” Kibris Postasi reports.
Stating that by “claiming your own culture and art means that one lays claim to their homeland.” Eroglu added: “Our aim at the negotiation table is to lay claim to our state, flag and country.” He also expressed his belief that the Greek Cypriots do not recognise the right of the Turkish Cypriots to live on these lands.
Eroglu stated further that the Greek Cypriot’s stance about the rights of the Turkish Cypriots is to “restrict the Turkish Cypriots as much as possible and by doing so; we will distance them from these lands.”
The President added that the Greek Cypriot’s hope is to go back to pre-1974 and distance the Turkish Cypriots from Turkey. “However their hopes will not come true,” Eroglu said.
