Cemil Çiçek, who is also the state minister for Cyprus affairs, told participants at the workshop called “Turkish Cyprus in 2011 -- Opportunities and Threats” in Ankara that the Cyprus problem is bigger than party affiliations and is a national matter for all governments in Turkey.
“If you place Turkish Cyprus on one side of a scale and EU membership on the other, Turkey would prefer Turkish Cyprus a thousand times,” Çiçek stressed, adding that the EU cannot be a political force without Turkey and that Turkey would not sacrifice Turkish Cypriot’s rights and interests for the EU, whose future is shrouded in doubt. Çiçek acknowledged that there is a standstill in Turkey’s EU membership talks because of Cyprus, but that Turkey is ready to pay the price.
