Davutoglu calls for a two-state solution in Cyprus

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has called for a two-state solution to the Cyprus problem.

Speaking during a visit to the Turkish-occupied part of the Mediterranean island, the new premier repeated the call made by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s newly-elected President, early September. Erdogan’s comments had irked officials in Athens and Nicosia.

Asked whether Cyprus should become a federation, the solution outlined in UN resolutions, or a confederation of two states, Davutoglu said that the two-state solution was clearly laid out in the joint statement signed recently between the two sides.

“What we want is what both sides have agreed on and it is what Turkey has backed. The document is clear,” he said.

Davutoglu’s visit to the Turkish-Cypriot breakaway state coincided with the resumption of peace talks under the UN’s new special adviser on Cyprus, Espen Barth Eide, who had a working dinner with Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish-Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu.

Cyprus has been split since a 1974 Turkish military invasion, dividing the north from the south after a brief Greek Cypriot coup engineered by the military then ruling Greece.