As first Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that relations would freeze with the EU during the Greek Cypriot presidency in the latter part of 2012 unless there was a solution to the decades-old Cyprus issue, Brussels concerns have recently increased that the already embattled accession talks would altogether ground to a halt after Turkey’s very blunt position on the divided island.
European Union officials and MEPs have come out to stress that the energy should now be invested in talks between Derviş Eroğlu, the president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) and Dimitris Christofias, the leader of the Greek Cypriots.