New ‘presidential’ palace in north ‘to be complete by December’

The new ‘presidential’ palace and ‘parliament’ buildings in the north, which are under construction in Ayios Dhometios, are to be completed by November or December at the latest, Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz said on Thursday.

“Despite all the unfair embargoes, the TRNC has made great progress in its infrastructure, economy, universities, and tourism,” he told television channel Haberturk.

“We are continuing to provide all kinds of support for the TRNC to become an equal sovereign member of the international community, while also increasing the Turkish Cypriots’ level of prosperity and developing their economy,” he added.

The new complex is located across 400,000 square metres of land and will see Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar’s official residence move out of Nicosia’s walled city and the north’s ‘parliament’ leave the former Dianellos cigarette factory in northern Nicosia’s Koskluciftlik neighbourhood.

Yilmaz on Thursday was asked about “talk that Israel has turned southern Cyprus into a military logistics base,” and urged for lighter military presences on the island.

“The island does not need new tensions, new military buildups in this sense. What should be essential is an environment of peace and trust that has existed for 50 years. Based on this, the Greek Cypriot side and the TRNC should come together as two separate states and produce a solution,” he said.

He added that this should create “a future which will benefit everyone” and that if the peoples and states in the Eastern Mediterranean do not solve their own problems, the region will “always be open to imperial interventions, external interventions”, something which he said has been seen throughout history.

“We have also seen in periods in our history when certain external forces, imperial powers, powers which never had the best interest of the Greeks, nor the Greek Cypriots, nor the Armenians, but used them as a tool,” he said.

With this in mind, he said “we need to get rid of this”, and that “as neighbours, as states which share the same geography, we need to plan our future, to develop cooperation through positive projects. This is Turkey’s perspective.”

He did warn, however, that “when a military threat occurs, Turkey is always prepared to give its strongest response.”

“As a strong country, it never falls short of providing a deterrent with its strong army and defence industry,” he said.