The remarks made by Greek Foreign Minister Mr. Kocias during a press conference in Athens on 10 July, to the effect that Turkey displayed an uncompromising attitude during the Conference on Cyprus held in Crans-Montana between 28 June - 7 July 2017, are completely unacceptable.

As we have previously emphasized, Turkey attended the Crans-Montana session of the Conference on Cyprus with the goodwill and constructive attitude we had been displaying since the very beginning of the negotiation process, with the aim of reaching a just and sustainable comprehensive settlement to the Cyprus issue. In any case, all participants would be aware of who did and did not behave constructively.

On the other hand, we are actually not surprised that Minister Kocias is making unfounded allegations and engaging in a blame game, as he did at yesterday’s press conference. Those who know that their approach is unconstructive and wholly devoid of the spirit of compromise, are prone to voicing baseless and untrue allegations so as to be able to blame those who display good faith and constructiveness, contrary to themselves. As the one responsible for the inability of the Conference on Cyprus to produce results either in Geneva or in Crans-Montana, Greek Foreign Minister Mr. Kocias’ useless efforts to place the blame on Turkey are actually an attempt to disguise the fact that the negotiations failed because of the lack of good faith and political will on the part of his country and the Greek Cypriot side. We invite Minister Kocias, who exerted no effort whatsoever towards a positive conclusion of the Conference, to at least act responsibly from now on.