According Hürriyet newspaper, TRNC Foreign Minister Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu stated that the UN Peacekeeping Force, which has 2 camps and a contact point in the TRNC, apart from the buffer zone on the Turkish and Greek border line, is working with the permission of the Greeks, and said, “The hospitality is over, UN should either sign a military agreement with the TRNC or they will also withdraw from the TRNC”.
Ertuğruloğlu noted that they submitted a draft for Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) to the UN and that they will take new steps for the recognition of the TRNC.
Explaining that the UN will review the draft, Ertuğruloğlu said, “They said they would respond as soon as possible, but we gave an extra month. As the TRNC, we clearly say to them, ‘Look, the authority that will approve your mission in the TRNC is not the Greek government, it is us. We have been hospitable for all these years, we have allowed it, but now it’s over. Even if the answer is negative, we never shy away from the steps we need to take. We have been living with the assurance of the Turkish military, thus there is no need for UN forces.”
