Turkish Cypriot president meets with EU officials in Brussels

BRUSSELS (A.A) - Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Dervis Eroglu met with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU Commissioner for enlargement Stefan Fule in Brussels on Tuesday. Replying to a question on statements by Turkish authorities that if there is no unification in the island, Turkey will freeze its ties with the EU during the Greek Cypriot administration's EU presidency in the second half of 2012, Eroglu said, "Turkey is a great state. I think that the head of the Turkish government and foreign minister will insist on it." Eroglu said he considered that no EU officials would be pleased with the Greek Cypriot administration's presidency when an important problem still existed.  The Greek Cypriot administration was in cooperation with Israel and trying to draw problems of the Middle East into the island, he said. "The Middle East has many problems bigger than the ones we have. If these problems come to the island, we cannot reach any solution," he said. "Cyprus talks will not last forever. Everything has and end. UN Secretary General (Ban Ki-moon) said there is a deadline in these talks," Eroglu said and added that Greek Cypriots were trying to postpone the process, but secretary general gave a message that there would be no delay. Eroglu said Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot parties would try to reach an agreement in the second half of January, stating that if no agreement was reached, the two parties and three guarantor states would gather to find a solution or the UN secretary general would decide whether the issue could be solved in the UN system.