A Cyprus deal should be written law of EU

ANKARA (AA) – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan left for Switzerland today to attend quartet Cyprus talks in Switzerland and he said that the issue of derogations had to be guaranteed in the law of European Union (EU) in a written way.

Before leaving from Turkey, Erdogan responded the questions from the correspondent over the Cyprus talks. Erdogan said that they would meet separately with Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and following it they would come together for four-part negotiations.

Turkish prime minister stated that they would go to Switzerland with good will and he expected the same from the Greek Cypriot side. Erdogan added that he had no doubt that Karamanlis also had a good will and he felt it during his meeting with Karamanlis in Brussels meeting.

He stated that the talks would continue until March 31 and the delegation in Switzerland had been continuing their work to reach a certain deal on Cyprus.

Erdogan stressed that the Turkish side’s demands were conveyed to Annan and he was evaluating the offers. Saying, "I hope to get a positive results during the meetings and we keep our good intention," Erdogan stated that their policy was built on good will but it was impossible to make a concession about "sine qua non."

Asked about his telephone calls with the European leaders, Erdogan responded, "We underlined that a deal on the Cyprus issue has to be a primary law of the EU. Stated guarantee is not satisfying us, there should be a written guarantee in the law of EU."