Menendez will never see Turkish troops leave Cyprus: AKP spokesperson
US Senator Bob Menendez will never see Turkish troops leave Cyprus, a spokesperson for Turkey’s ruling party AKP said.
“Bob Menendez will not see Turkish soldiers leave Cyprus. He will not be able to see it. He’s dreaming wrong,” said Omer Celik, following a meeting of the central committee of the ruling AKP on Thursday.
Earlier this week, Menendez, the chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, told Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades during a visit to the island that his goal was “to see the last Turkish soldier leave Cyprus.”
Celik described the Turkish army as the “guarantor of peace” on Cyprus.
“They are not there for nothing. Everyone knows very well why the Turkish armed forces went there, as part of the Peace Operation [i.e. the Turkish invasion] and what their presence there means today,” he said.
“To say that the Turkish armed forces must withdraw from there means that the Greek Cypriots will occupy Cyprus,” he continued.
Menendez “expressed a wish that will never come true,” the Turkish official concluded.
