Nicosia has been very much annoyed by the use of a “flag” of the Turkish Cypriot puppet-regime during the extraordinary summit of the Organization of Turkic States, in Ankara, in the presence of officials from Hungary, an EU member state. Cyprus has asked Budapest for explanations, while Foreign Minister, Constantinos Kombos, will raise this issue during a meeting with his Hungarian counterpart, on the sidelines of the EU Foreign Affairs Council, on Monday, in Brussels. Invited to comment on the use of the “flag”, the Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, Theodoros Gotsis, said that the Ministry had made preventive representations to the member states and to the states that are observers to the Organization as regards the participation of the pseudostate. He underlined that “the issue of the symbols at the presence of Hungarian officials is unacceptable and in addition to the other representations we have conveyed to Budapest that the Republic of Cyprus has been very much annoyed by this development,” he added. Gotsis said that Nicosia has asked explanations from the Hungarian side and the issue is being handled at the diplomatic level. Moreover, he noted that Foreign Minister Kombos will raise the issue during a meeting with his Hungarian counterpart on the sidelines of the EU Foreign Affairs Council on Monday, in Brussels. Except from Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan are member states of the Organization of Turkic States, while Turkmenistan and Hungary are observer states. Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively.
Source: Cyprus News Agency