"Turkey regards Cyprus issue national cause: state minister
www.chinaview.cn 2005-02-20 00:05:28
ANKARA, Feb. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Turkish State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullatif Sener said Saturday that Turkey considers the Cyprus issue as a national cause.
The elections in Cyprus will not affect Turkey's fundamental targets and efforts to protect interests of the Turkish Cypriot people, the semi-official Anatolia News Agency quoted Sener as saying.
'Turkey should be decisive and show solidarity in this sensitive period. Turkey has always backed Turkish Cypriots and supported them economically and politically,' the minister said.
'For years there was a conviction in the international arena that Turkish Cypriots caused the (Cyprus) problem. This conviction was removed with the referendum (held in April 2004),' Sener said."
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