TRNC PM Talat: Change has started

LEFKOSA (AA) – Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Talat said on Wednesday that a press conference that everybody should contribute to the process of change for a painless change.

Noting that the situation would change in Cyprus whether the result of the simultaneous referenda to take place in the island on April 24 was "yes" or "no", Talat said that change would be easier if more people voted "yes" to the United Nations (U.N.) Secretary General Kofi Annan’s plan in the referenda.

Talat stated that Cyprus was experiencing important days and campaigns had been launched for and against the simultaneous referenda.

His party Republican Turkish Party (CTP) decided to vote "yes" in the referendum in its meeting held last night, Talat recalled.

Talat said that efforts for a solution in the island continued and called on everybody to be calm in the propaganda process.

Annan plan was not a plan which they had longed for, Talat stated. But, he said, they had contributed to preparation of the plan.

Talat pointed out that Annan plan was turned into a plan which attached importance to problems of the two sides in the island.

Noting that the plan foresaw political equality and it was turned into a plan which could be voted "yes", Talat expressed hope that majority of his people would cast an affirmative vote to the plan.

Talat said that TRNC had prepared the list of 45 thousand TRNC citizens of Turkish Republic origin which the U.N. wanted.

The list included everybody who became TRNC citizen after 1974, Talat said and noted that nobody should worry.

Talat said that the number of Turkish citizens who married Cypriot people was 11 thousand and this number was excluded from the list including 45 thousand TRNC citizens with Turkish Republic origin.

This list will be submitted to the U.N. on April 10, Talat stated.

Talat said that those lists would be kept by the U.N. Secretary General and would be issued in the first official gazette of the "United Cyprus Republic" in case an agreement was reached on the island.

Then, they could object to those lists within three months, Talat pointed out.

Talat said that he did not even want to think about the situation if the Greek Cypriots voted "no" to the plan and noted that they should try to convince the Greek Cypriots to say "yes" to the plan.

Announcing that as the prime minister, he would be the first to visit political parties in the Greek Cypriot side, Talat said that CTP would try to persuade the Greek Cypriots to vote "yes" to the plan in the simultaneous referenda.

Delegations from TRNC, Greek Cypriot side, Turkey and Greece held Cyprus negotiations in Buergenstock, Switzerland from March 24 to 31 in order to find a fair and lasting solution to Cyprus issue till May 1 on the basis of Annan plan.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Costas Caramanlis also joined the negotiations as of March 29.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan presented his final plan to the parties on March 31.

The final plan will be put to separate simultaneous referenda in Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot sides in the island on April 24.