“Turkey fully supports a two-state solution in Cyprus,” said Turkey’s Defence Minister Hulusi Akar in an interview with CNN Türk on Tuesday.

Akar, who is in Bosnia-Herzegovina, said that Turkey will continue to defend its and the Turkish Cypriot peoples’ rights and interests in the Eastern Mediterranean.

“We support a solution in Cyprus based on two equal states. We will not stop defending our rights and interests in the Eastern Mediterranean as well as those of our Turkish Cypriot brethren,” he said.

The Turkish defence minister also said that Greece continued its armament campaign and pursued a policy of tension in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean despite Turkey’s desire to settle problems through diplomatic channels.

“We’ve told them that these are futile attempts and we shall continue to tell them,” he said.