Guterres: UN will continue to seek common ground UNSG aims to realise the start of formal Cyprus talks
UNITED Nations SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres will “continue efforts to find a common ground” between the two sides of Cyprus for the start of formal settlement negotiations, President Ersin Tatar said following a meeting with Mr Guterres in Brussels.
The two met in the Belgian capital last Friday on the sidelines of the EU Council, with a further meeting planned for September in New York.
According to Mr Tatar, Mr Guterres said in their meeting that “the process can be accelerated and handled more seriously with the appointment of a ‘Special Envoy’” for Cyprus.
“We told him that we would consider this at our end in due course,” Mr Tatar said. “Of course, he consulted on this with other parties as well such as with Ankara, Athens and the Greek Cypriot side. An evaluation will be made on this issue.”
President Tatar made the remarks at a press conference at Ercan airport following his return to the TRNC on Saturday.
His meeting with the UN chief was “beneficial” and held in a “cordial atmosphere” and lasted for more than half an hour, he said.
“At our meeting with the UN Secretary-General, we have reiterated again that our sovereign equality is extremely important and we reaffirmed that, as indicated in the six-point proposal we made in Geneva [in April], as soon as our sovereign equality is recognised and our equal international status is accepted, we will be prepared to move on to formal negotiations,” Mr Tatar told reporters.
President Tatar stated that the UN Secretary-General had in response to this said that he was listening to the views of both sides, but that no formal negotiations have been initiated because no common ground has yet been found.
“However, it is obvious that following the New York meeting to which Mr Guterres has invited us to attend this September, he will evaluate whether there will be another five-plus-UN informal meeting in Geneva. Meanwhile, there is no question of us going directly to formal negotiations.”
The meeting with Guterres also gave Mr Tatar the opportunity to “once again set out the position” of the Turkish Cypriot side.
“When we look at the past of Cyprus, we are one of the founding partners [of the Republic of Cyprus] and therefore we are as sovereign as the Greek Cypriots are,” the President said.
“Therefore, on the basis of equality, we are entitled to the same international status as that which the Greek Cypriot side enjoys. . . Looking at the history of Cyprus, when Britain withdrew from Cyprus, it transferred its sovereignty to two separate peoples.
“Maybe the whole world still does not understand this. But we keep sharing this with the whole world and this is the basis of our struggle.”
On the issue of “confidence building measures” (CBMs) put forward by Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades, Mr Tatar said: “We expressed to the Secretary-General that the important issues that will affect the essence of the Cyprus issue and therefore derail our expectations about sovereignty will not be within the framework of CBMs and that the Cyprus problem can only be addressed in a holistic way.”
However Mr Anastasiades, who was also in Brussels, said that Mr Guterres had told him in a separate meeting that a two-state solution is a “nonstarter”, according to Greek Cypriot media reports.
“He acknowledged that the Turkish positions were hampering efforts to resume talks but said that he would continue to work to create the conditions for a meaningful dialogue,” Mr Anastasiades was quoted as saying.
THE UN Secretary-General may include the words “two selfgoverning regions” in a Cyprus report to be submitted to the UN Security Council later this month, according to an unconfirmed Greek Cypriot media report.
The report by the daily Phileleftheros was based on comments allegedly made by Jane Holl Lute, the UN’s “senior official” for Cyprus, in a meeting with Nicos Anastasiades.