Vice President Fuat Oktay strongly criticized the Greek Cypriot administration Thursday for hosting an office belonging to the YPG/PKK terrorist organization.
"The mentality that killed babies in Greek Cypriot in the past is opening offices for terrorists who murder babies today," Oktay said on Twitter.
"The fact that the Greek Cypriot administration, which embraces terrorism, talks about peace on the island is an indication of its insincerity. Those who play with fire will burn their hands sooner or later!" he added.
Earlier on the same day, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, speaking at a joint news conference with his Estonian counterpart Eva-Maria Liimets, said if Turkey or the Turkish Cypriot side faces any threat or attack from the Greek Cypriot side, "we will make them pay the price."
"This price will be a heavy one. Thus, they (Greek Cypriot side) should not play with fire," Çavuşoğlu added.
Without specifying their names, Çavuşoğlu said there are countries using terrorist groups as their proxies.
Çavuşoğlu was referring to the United States. The U.S. has primarily partnered with the PKK terrorist group's offshoot, the YPG, in northern Syria to fight Daesh. Turkey strongly opposes the YPG's presence in northern Syria, a major sticking point in strained Ankara-Washington relations. The U.S. has provided military training and truckloads of weaponry to the YPG, despite its NATO ally's security concerns.
"Most recently, a terrorist group in Syria was supported under the pretext of fighting Daesh. But we, as Turkey, wanted to be in solidarity in the fight against terrorism even with the countries with whom we have the worst relations ... We do not support any terrorist organization," he added.
Çavuşoğlu said there are terrorist camps of the PKK and DHKP-C in Greece, adding: "It has also been proven with documents that DHKP-C members trained there (in Greece) returned and carried out terrorist attacks in Turkey."
Çavuşoğlu also said that members of the Gülenist terrorist group (FETÖ) not only use Greece as a transit country but also as a safe haven and live there.
"Having these terrorist groups open offices and hosting them is like playing with fire. We already know that the Greek Cypriot side supports terrorist groups until today," Çavuşoğlu said, and called on the Greek Cypriot administration to refrain from cooperating with terrorist groups.
"There may be problems on different issues that we cannot agree on. Our opinions are different, of course ... But the issue of terrorism is a very different matter. This is purely a matter of security," he added.
