Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has repeated that Ankara would not open its ports to Greek Cypriot traffic before the lifting of the isolation on the Turkish Cypriots.
Mr Davutoğlu was speaking at a joint press conference after discussions with his British counterpart David Miliband in Ankara.
Mr Davutoğlu said “promises are mutual. The promise to remove the isolation of the TRNC is as much binding to our side as Turkey’s promise to open its ports is binding to the European Council”.
Stressing that Ankara’s stance on the issue was very clear, the Minister said Turkey has always looked at the Cyprus issue from a comprehensive point of view, and not on the narrow topic of ports issue.
“We have two options in front of us, and we choose the first. And that is a comprehensive solution”, he said, adding that Turkey was in support of a settlement to bring peace not only to Cyprus but also to the Eastern Mediterranean.