President Mehmet Ali Talat has said neither the sovereignty of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus nor its citizenship has been handed over to anyone.

The President was responding to criticisms from the opposition who said they were against a solution to the Cyprus Problem on the basis of single sovereignty and citizenship

Answering reporters’ questions on Thursday, the President said that the issues of single sovereignty and citizenship were not open to debate if the desired goal was to reach a federal solution to the Cyprus Problem and to reunify the island.“There is no example of a state in the world that has two sovereignties and two citizenships” he said in reply to a question, adding that the way these concepts are to be implemented will be decided at full-fledged negotiations.

Pointing out the discussions held between the two sides were for a joint partnership state, President Talat said “we are talking about a joint partnership state to be established with the Greek Cypriots. Sovereignty is to be shared in the new partnership state. There is political equality. So there is no need for concern”.

He said the opposition was making such criticisms just for the sake of being opposed to the issues discussed and that when looked at carefully, it could be seen that their criticisms were baseless.

Asked about Christofias’ statement before the 1st of July meeting claiming that President Talat was struggling against pressure from Turkey, the President said that the Greek Cypriot Leader was talking about the period when he was the leader of the Republican Turkish Party but added that Mr Christofias was lying.

He described the statement as an ugly attack aimed at undermining his position and damaging his relations with Turkey.