Turkey said Sunday that a European Union guarantee for the protection of the clauses in a possible settlement over Cyprus was an indispensable condition in last-ditch efforts to reunify the island.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said a peace deal would be "meaningless" if its provisions were to be eroded after Cyprus joins the pan-European bloc on May 1.
"Any agreement should be accommodated in the EU primary law. This is a non-negotiable issue for us," Gul told reporters after a meeting with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and army chief Hilmi Ozkok.
"If any doubts remain on this issue, a settlement that we would reach after such long efforts will be meaningless because it would mean that it (the settlement) could be changed in the future," Gul said.
Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots are worried that EU principles concerning the free movement of people and capital could one day erode fundamental arrangements in a Cyprus deal that would be based on the separation of the island's Turkish minority and Greek majority within a loose federation.
They fear that the Greek Cypriots, who form the more populous and richer side of the island, could one day - politically and economically - swallow up the Turkish Cypriot minority.
UN-sponsored negotiations aimed at reunifying Cyprus in time for EU membership, are set to begin in Switzerland next week with the participation of Turkey, Greece and the Turkish and Greek sides of the Mediterranean island.
The meetings represent the second phase of the peace process, in which the "motherlands" of the two Cypriot communities will add their weight in a bid to resolve differences that the parties have failed to iron out in talks in Nicosia.
If the four-way negotiations also fail, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will act as an arbiter and finalise a settlement text, to be put to referendums on both sides of Cyprus on April 20.
Gul said Ankara was also seeking enhanced measures to boost the political powers of the would-be Turkish Cypriot component state and minimise the mingling of the two communities.
Turkey should also be a guarantor of the would-be settlement and settlers from Turkey should be allowed to continue to live in the island, he said.
The minister stressed Ankara was determined to seek an accord at the Swiss talks.
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