LEFKOSA / ANADOLU

A senior official in the Presidency of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus said that his country expects from the Vice President of the European Commission, Raffaele Fitto, who was recently appointed as the EU Special Representative for Cyprus, to adopt a "fair approach" with Turkish Cypriots.

The head of the Presidential Office, Muhammed Dana, said in a statement on Monday that the presence of the Greek Cypriot administration in the European Union and its possession of veto power makes it difficult to expect the Union to be neutral in negotiations.

He pointed out that the unilateral decisions and biased statements issued by EU institutions in the recent period are the clearest evidence of this, without giving details.

He affirmed that his country expects the special representative to work on developing relations and dialogue between the European Union and the Turkish Cypriot side on "sound and fair foundations".

He stressed that the Turkish Cypriot people still hold onto their strong will to reach a solution, reiterating his country's full support for the United Nations efforts aimed at resolving the Cyprus issue.

The island of Cyprus has been divided since 1974 between a Turkish side in the north and a Greek Cypriot side in the south, while the Greek Cypriots rejected in 2004 a UN plan to reunify the two parts of the island.

Since the collapse of the Cyprus reunification talks, held under UN auspices in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, in July 2017, no official negotiations mediated by the UN have been held to reach a settlement of the ongoing conflict on the island.