US-Cyprus military cooperation ‘a threat to the north’ says Turkish Cypriot ‘FM’

Military cooperation between the Republic and the USA is intended as a threat against the ‘TRNC’ the north’s ‘foreign ministry’ has said.

In response to the threat the necessary measures will be taken, together with Turkey, the ‘ministry’ added.

In his statement, as relayed by the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) on Tuesday, the north’s ‘foreign minister’ Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu,said that “open military support of the Greek Cypriot administration by a country like the USA contributes to maintaining the mentality of supremacy [of the Greek Cypriot side] in Cyprus.”

He added that the continuous dispatch of US navy warships to the island, ignoring all appeals and proposals of the Turkish side, “serves no other purpose than to increase tension.”

The arrival of the destroyer USS Roosevelt at the port of Limassol last Saturday, “reportedly carried out to ensure freedom of navigation” in the Eastern Mediterranean and to “support crisis management in the region, is in fact part of the strategic partnership that the US recently signed with Nicosia and an indicator of “US support to the Greek Cypriot administration in military matters,” Ertuğruloğlu said.

He added that the submarine USS San Juan, also belonging to the US Navy, has visited the naval ports of the Republic several times in the last two years “under various pretexts.”

“It is clear that this military cooperation between the US and the [Greek Cypriots] is intended to be used as a threat against our country by the Greek Cypriot administration. Faced with this situation, as a Turkish Cypriot state, we would like to express that we will not avoid taking all the necessary measures together with our homeland Turkey to ensure the safety of the Turkish Cypriot people,” Ertuğruloğlu said.