‘Negotiate alternative solutions’
“ALTERNATIVE” solutions to the Cyprus problem — including a “two-state” solution — should be brought to the table, two former Cyprus talks negotiators have said.
Osman Ertuğ and Ergün Olgun, who both served under the late TRNC founding President Rauf Denktaş, said in a joint statement issued on Tuesday that efforts to achieve a bicommunal bizonal federation — which has formed the basis of talks from the late 1970s up to the last big push in 2017 — had collapsed.
President Mustafa Akıncı, who is seeking reelection in October, wants to resume talks for a federal solution involving the two sides of Cyprus, Turkey, Greece and the United Kingdom.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres raised eyebrows in the TRNC and Turkey last week when he said that it was his “intention” to convene the “five key partners” and “restart a dialogue with the two communities [of Cyprus] in the follow-up of the dinner I had with them in Berlin” in November 2019, once the North Cyprus presidential elections have been completed.
Evaluating the current prospects for a federal solution in Cyprus, Mr Ertuğ and Mr Olgun wrote: “It is well known by the public that during the meetings that took place in June-July 2017, in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, in which the five [parties] participated, the decades-long federal solution process was exhausted.
“All the relevant parties made statements confirming the failure [of the talks] and even President Akıncı put an end to the quest for a federal solution with his statements that it was ‘the last chance of our generation’.
“It should be considered with open minds . . . the reasons of such failures of the processes that had been commenced in 1968 and lasted until mid-2017, and lessons should be learned.
“In addition to the primary reason [of the failure to form a federation], that the Greek Cypriot side is not willing to share authority and welfare based on an equal status, the United Nations has failed to provide the necessary conditions to seek peace accordingly.
“Hence, the UN Security Council has continued to recognise the Greek Cypriot side as the legitimate government of the Republic of Cyprus, in spite of the fact that they invaded the Republic in 1963 through force of arms . . . The Greek Cypriot side has neither reasons nor motivations to seek a solution based on equal rights.”
The Turkish Cypriot side had shown the “necessary flexibility and constructiveness in order to find a solution”, Mr Ertuğ and Mr Olgun said, adding that Mr Akıncı “exceeded the limits of compromise” during the 2017 Swiss summit in a way that “endangered the rights, status and benefits of our people” and that he provided a map of proposed territorial adjustments “with nothing to show for in return”.
“However, even all those compromises were not enough to make the Greek Cypriots accept the Turkish Cypriots as an equal part of an envisioned federal partnership.
“The result of this indicates that the Greek Cypriot side does not seek reconciliation in terms of equal rights; rather it uses the negotiations as a means to maintain the status quo that would allow them to sustain their so-called ‘ recognised government’ status.”
The pair said that bringing “alternative solution models” to the agenda was now the “correct thing” for the TRNC to do. They also praised Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu for saying late last Friday that Cyprus negotiations cannot recommence without a “common vision” between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots.
“We believe that the UN Secretary General’s statement that he wishes to organise a [five-party] conference following the [presidential] elections in the TRNC should be considered within this framework,” Mr Olgun and Mr Ertuğ added.
Meanwhile a separate “evaluation” of the latest developments in Cyprus and the wider region by the Beşparmak think tank, of which Mr Olgun and Mr Ertuğ are members, said that “viewing a federal solution as the only solution means a defective negotiations strategy, as well as placing restrictions, even a mortgage, on the right of the Turkish Cypriots to self-determination.”
The report added that there are a number of “de facto” states around the world that, like the TRNC, are unrecognised but have still been able to “strengthen their economies and raise the welfare level of their people and have been accepted by the international community”.
“De facto states such as Taiwan, Western Sahara, Palestine and Kosovo have been recognised by a considerable number of countries,” the report stated.
“Some of the reasons for . . . their recognition, are the effectiveness of these states, their international ties and their ability to secure the support of powerful states.
“Therefore, just as the Greek Cypriot side and Greece have a common national policy, the TRNC and Turkish authorities should adopt a common policy on the grounds of the new realities of our island and . . . adopt a common goal/path in the interests of the Turkish [Cypriot] side.”