ANKARA - Turkey will not open negotiation chapters with the EU during Cyprus’s presidency in the second half of 2012, Turkey’s EU Minister and chief negotiator Egemen Bağış said.
Turkish newspaper Hurriyet quoted him as saying: “If the Greek Cypriots want to open a chapter with us, we will give them a date after their presidency is over, and open the chapter then. In the meantime, our relations with the commission, Parliament and EU member countries will continue the same,” Bağış said in an interview with the private NTV news channel.
“We don’t have relations with Greek Cyprus today, so we’re not going to start one just because someone appointed them as president,” Bağış said.