Tatar: Sovereignty and status of TCs must be equal to GCs before formal negotiations for settlement start
THE sovereignty and international status of the Turkish Cypriots must be recognised as equal to that of the Greek Cypriot side before any formal negotiations for a Cyprus settlement can begin, President Ersin Tatar said on Tuesday.
He made the remarks at a press conference following a one-and-ahalf hour meeting in his office with the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s “senior official” for Cyprus, Jane Holl Lute.
In April Mr Guterres, Mr Tatar, Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and the foreign ministers of Turkey, Greece and the UK – the three “guarantor” countries of the island – met in Geneva for three days of “informal” talks on a way forward.
The talks ended without the sides finding any “common ground” although Mr Guterres said that he planned to hold a second round of discussions at a later date.
According to Mr Tatar, Ms Lute told him in their latest meeting that she wished that direct negotiations could be started without the necessity of a “second Geneva meeting”, but stated that there is “no common ground at the moment”.
Mr Tatar said that “practical, creative and courageous steps” that will “reconcile the two sides” and that can be shaped according to the “suggestions and pressures that the UN and other countries will make on the Greek Cypriot side” are needed.
Mr Tatar said that he told Ms
Lute that the Turkish Cypriot side “maintains its position in Geneva” and that they had brought “innovation to the process and displayed a constructive attitude”.
Negotiations on the basis of a bicommunal, bizonal federation model have failed and UN officials are “also aware of this”, Mr Tatar stressed, adding that the TRNC has experienced “great development over the years and is connected to the world”.
Meanwhile Foreign Minister Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu has said that he does not believe that the basis for any agreement can be established with the Greek Cypriot side.
“It seems that there will be no
common ground because the Greek Cypriot side continues to be recognised as the ‘Republic of Cyprus’ with the wrong diagnosis of the whole world,” he said in an interview with Turkey’s Anadolu news agency.
“As long as they continue to be recognised as the Republic of Cyprus, they will never foresee any power sharing and authority sharing with the Turkish Cypriots.
“It is the most basic policy of the Greek Cypriots that the Turkish
Cypriots do not reach the position they deserve in the international arena.”
The establishment of the TRNC is a “reality”, he said, adding that even if a state is not recognised “it does not mean that the state does not exist”.
He also slammed the EU for admitting the Greek Cypriot side as a member of the bloc by “violating its own laws” and said that it is “against the Turkish Cypriots in the Cyprus issue”.