ANKARA
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay has said, "Future of Cyprus is connected to Turkey, all Turkish Cypriots' water demand is supplied by Turkey. We will supply the electric power as well and it will provide a higher quality to Turkish Cypriots' life style, we are sure about achieving this."
Atalay received the Ambassador of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) to Ankara, Mustafa Lakadamyali, at the Prime Ministry in Ankara on Thursday for the 38th anniversary of the 20th of July Turkish Peace and Freedom Operation in Cyprus. Turkish deputy pm stated that he will be attending the celebrations which are starting on Friday.
Atalay said that TRNC and Turkey are having the best bilateral relations of all times and he stated, "As a government we are trying to support TRNC as much as we can."
He reminded that he is the deputy pm who is responsible for the relations between Turkey and TRNC and underlined that TRNC had been performing strong economic improvements and stated the new development program is going to be applied in 2013.
He highlighted reform packages being prepared by the parliament of TRNC and the economic growth. He said that the economic growth reached 5 percent.
Atalay also added that with the privatization, there will be important benefits arriving and said, "Our water project is working fast and well, all the tenders are over, water reservoir project is nearly completed, the water will be coming from Anamur which is soon to be pumped. Bidding contracts of water pipes which will be going under the sea bed are solved and the pipes are already being pitched. The foundation of the water reservoir on the other side had been completed too. All the water that the whole of the island needs can be supplied from Turkey. This is the most vital investment."
Furthermore, Atalay highlighted the relations between the southern Cyprus and TRNC and said that as Turkey, we demand "equal, fair, mutual and federal structure".
Atalay talked about the southern Cyprus's European Union term presidency and underlined, "We tell all Turkish Cypriot citizens that they do not need to worry about the results of the negotiations because Turkey is and will stand by TRNC and support them all the time. There will not be any negations, we will not let that happen. The most important points of TRNC are the economic growth and development of democracy."
