Greek-Turkish, Cypriot, EU, US and F-16 were mentioned by Turkish Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidansubmitting to the Planning and Budget Committee of the Turkish National Assembly, where next year’s state budget is discussed.

“Our relations with Greece are developing in a positive direction. We continue our preparations for the High Level Cooperation Council on December 7, 2023,” Hakan Fidan said as reported by correspondent of SKAI in Istanbul, Manolis Kostidis.

Regarding the Cyprus issue, he stated that “if there is to be any negotiation in Cyprus, it will not be between two communities but between two states. Before starting negotiations, the situation of the two states will be equalized.”

At the same time, he pointed out that Turkey remains committed to its goal of joining the EU and continues to follow constructive policies for the development of cooperation and dialogue in all sectors. “However, we have seen that the European Union is far from displaying strategic vision at times, most recently in the example of the European Commission’s report on Turkey 2023. The challenges we face show that Turkey-EU relations are too strategic to be limited to the narrow-minded pursuit of the interests of certain member states. Our main expectation from the EU is to take concrete and substantial steps that will bring back the integration in our cooperation and the specific integration process” he underlined and added:

“In our meetings, we strongly emphasized that America’s cooperation with the PKK-YPG, FETO’s presence in America and its unilateral sanctions are incompatible with the spirit of the alliance. We have repeatedly stated that America must take concrete steps to correct its misguided positions on issues that directly affect our national security. In this context, we have raised our expectation at every level that our request for the procurement and modernization of the F-16s will be finalized as soon as possible, without conditions or restrictions. We continue to work with the United States on many regional and global issues where we have common interests.”