Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced, according to statements reported by the state-run Anadolu news agency, that his country is ready to establish a naval military base in northern Cyprus “if the need arises," as reported by Agence France-Presse.
"If necessary, we can build a base and naval facilities in the north. We also have the sea," Erdogan said on the plane that was transporting him back from Cyprus, accusing Greece of seeking to establish a similar base on the island.
On Saturday, Erdogan visited the northern part of Cyprus, where Ankara declared the establishment of the internationally unrecognized "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" in 1983, on the fiftieth anniversary of the Turkish invasion of the northern Mediterranean island.
The Turkish President added, "We build on the island the building of the Presidency of the (Turkish Republic in Northern Cyprus) and the Parliament building. They are establishing a military base (while) we are establishing a political base."
Erdogan once again ruled out any resumption of international negotiations on the future of Cyprus, stipulating direct negotiations with the Greek Cypriot side.
He continued, "Frankly, we do not believe that it is possible to launch a new negotiation process without defining an equation that notes that the two sides sit peer-to-peer and leave the (negotiating) table peer-to-peer."
He finally praised the "precious" presence of the opposition in Nicosia on Saturday, represented by the head of the Republican People's Party, the largest opposition party in the Turkish Parliament, Ozgur Ozil, on the official platform.
He said, "The most valuable image of unity that we embodied as a government and opposition. It showed that the Cyprus issue is not only our issue but the issue of 85 million people - the population of Turkey."
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