Turkey is ready to build a military base in northern Cyprus “if necessary”, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, the official Anadolu news agency reported.

“If necessary, we can build a base and naval structures in the north. We also have the sea,” the Turkish president said on the plane returning from Cyprus, where he attended ceremonies yesterday marking the 50th anniversary of the Turkish military intervention. He accused Greece of wanting to establish such a base on the divided Mediterranean island.

“We are building the presidential building (of the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus) and the parliament building on the island. They are building a military base and we are building a political base,” Erdogan said.

In 1983, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was proclaimed in the northern part of Cyprus, which is recognised only by Turkey.

The Turkish head of state again ruled out any possibility of continuing international negotiations on the future of Cyprus. According to him, the only possible way is to negotiate directly with the Greek Cypriots, on the basis of equality.

“We honestly do not think it is possible to start a new negotiation process without creating a balance where both sides sit at the table as equals and leave as equals,” Erdogan said.

The island of Cyprus has been divided since Turkey seized the northern part of the island on July 20, 1974 in response to a coup by nationalist Greek Cypriots who wanted to annex the island to distant Greece.

The Republic of Cyprus, the only internationally recognized Republic, exercises power only on the southern part of the island, separated by a buffer zone controlled by the United Nations, and the northern part of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, proclaimed and recognized only by Ankara itself.

( BETA )