“The New Period in Cyprus Negotiation Process" Seminar held at GAU
“The New Period in Cyprus Negotiation Process" discussed by 2nd President Mehmet Ali Talat at GAU
2nd President Mehmet Ali Talat participated as a speaker at “The New Period in Cyprus Negotiation Process" seminar which was organized by the Girne American University Political Science and International Relations club.

• 2nd President Mehmet Ali Talat emphasized that the Cyprus problem is an international problem and stated that a solution can be found through the intervention of external forces.

• Talat pointed out that maintaining the negotiations at the level of the interviewer is a very serious mistake and this will drop the process to the second degree.

GAU Rector – Prof. Dr. Yıldırım Öner reminded in his opening speech that in the 10-year period from the Annan plan to this day, the economic and political aspects of Turkey are strengthened, Greece and South Cyprus's economic and political position has changed and the issue of natural gas and oil has emerged and expressed that these changes will be able to contribute in a positive way to finding of a solution.
.
Talat who stated in his speech that the only document that was negotiated between the two leaders is the Annan plan, reminded that over 30 rapprochement papers which identified agreed, not agreed and to-be-agreed topics were prepared during the talks with Hristofias.

Talat explained that the Greek side did not want an outside intervention during both the Annan Plan period and also the present day and stated that Anastasiades gives an attitude of "there is no document on the table, so basically convergence papers cannot be the root of a new negotiation process."

Talat stated that maintaining the negotiations at the level of negotiators was a serious mistake, that it will lower the process to the second degree, it will slow down the process of achieving results and will bring outside intervention and emphasized that the negotiations need to be discussed at the level of community leaders.

Talat who reminded that President Eroğlu talked about a referendum in June, stated that it will only happen if both of the sides want it, if the negotiations will continue at the level of leaders and if the leaders work day and night.

Talat stated that the Greek side is an EU member unilaterally due to the mistakes made before 2004, and emphasized that lessons should be learned from this case and not to be delayed any longer.

Talat stated that the Greeks are more inclined with reminiscent solutions today due to the economic crisis and stressed that it is needed to act quickly considering the economic political situation of Turkey, Greece and Greek Cyprus and the developments in the natural gas process.

GAU Rector – Yıldırım Öner presented a plaque to 2nd President - Mehmet Ali Talat at end of the seminar for his contributions to the seminar which was organized by the Political Science and International Relations club.