North Cyprus too small to be a country: Kidd

The British High Commissioner to Cyprus, Matthew Kidd has said that recognising the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus as a country would be dangerous in creating an unviable small country which would be vulnerable because of its size in a volatile region.

Kidd made the remarks when answering a question raised in a meeting with British expats in Lapta on Wednesday last week and according to him, the simplest solution, after the failure of the Cyprus talks would be if the UK recognised the TRNC, reports Cyprus Today.

If it was as easy as that for us or for anybody else to recognise the TRNC, perhaps we would have done it. But it would not be for a number of reasons and I would like to focus you on one, which does not get very much attention”, he said

A state of 250,000 people in this part of the world would be very vulnerable. If it were an EU state it would be the smallest EU member state. Its economy currently is very heavily dependent on a third country, which is not an EU member state. Its ability to provide its own security in a part of the world which we can all see is not very stable or secure will be very, very limited. Both for the population of this hypothetical state and for everyone else around it that would be a dangerous thing to have. We, the world, do not need more fragile states in parts of the world which are dangerous”, he added.

Following his comments, some participants at the meeting then chorused that the TRNC does exist, Kidd shot back, “You say it exists, I do not recognise it!”

Cyprus Today