Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on Friday night said comments made by President Nikos Christodoulides regarding the Cyprus problem during a visit of Greek President Konstantinos Tasoulas were “null and void,”

“I said that an atmosphere of solution is needed on this island. I said, and I say, that Mr. Christodoulides and I have a lot to do on this issue (…),” Erhurman said in a post on social media.

According to the Turkish Cypriot leader, he and Christodoulides had agreed during their first meeting on Thursday they would not comment on the Cyprus problem to the press for the time being.

Erhurman accused Christodoulides of breaching said agreement, following his remarks during a ceremony honouring the soldiers of the Hellenic forces (Eldyk), who fought in Cyprus in 1974, on Friday.

During the event, Christodoulides said “a solution to the Cyprus problem without the withdrawal of the Turkish occupying troops cannot be accepted,” reiterating that the Republic could not settle for an arrangement that kept it “captive to anachronistic guarantees and logic of the cold war period.”

“It is absurd for Mr Christodoulides, who has signed without the will of the Turkish Cypriot people (…) numerous military agreements with states that do not have the status of guarantor country, to attempt to impose such a condition on this issue,” Erhurman said.

He referred to the north as “one of two equal co-founders with sovereign rights on this island,” and disregarded Christodoulides’ remarks, saying that he considered them invalid.

More to follow.