President Ersin Tatar addresses 13th Ambassadors Conference in Ankara
President Ersin Tatar: “Sustainable peace and stability in Cyprus and the region can be reached with a settlement that is based on the sovereign equality and equal international status of the Turkish Cypriot People, which is our inherent right.”
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President Ersin Tatar, who participated as special guest at the 13th Ambassadors Conference in Ankara, emphasised that the Turkish Cypriot People attribute great importance to their sovereignty and to equal treatment by the international community.
The President addressed a packed conference that was held with the theme “Wise and Compassionate Turkish Diplomacy on the Eve of 2023 and Beyond”. The conference was inaugurated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Türkiye Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and attended by Turkish Minister of National Defence Hulusi Akar. Other participants at the conference included the President of Slovenia Borut Pahor, Secretary-General of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe Helga Schmid and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov.
President Tatar also met with Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu and other officials who attended the event.
Addressing the conference, President Tatar said that the Turkish Cypriot Side is putting forward a new vision for formal negotiations to be started once there is acknowledgement of the sovereign equality and equal international status of the Turkish Cypriot People, which is our inherent right.
President Tatar stated: “The Turkish Cypriot People are one of the co-owners of the island of Cyprus, and equal partners, who were expulsed with the use of force of arms out of the state apparatus in 1963 by the Greek-Greek Cypriot duo, whose objective was to annex the island to Greece.
“Despite all the difficulties and the atrocities faced by the Turkish Cypriot people, we have been governing ourselves for decades and we eventually proclaimed our own State, which is the symbol of our sovereignty. The Turkish Cypriot People today attribute great importance to their sovereignty,” the President said.
Stressing that a “a new policy with regards to the Cyprus issue has been endorsed with my election in 2020,” President Tatar added that “negotiations for a federal based settlement which has continued for more than half-a-century have been exhausted because of the persistent rejections by the Greek Cypriot Side. . .most notably at the separately held simultaneous referenda that was held for a UN Comprehensive Settlement [Annan] Plan in 2004, and the collapse of negotiations in Crans Montana in 2017”. He said the “Turkish Cypriot people have withdrawn their consent for a federal based negotiations”.
The President stated that the Greek Cypriot Side had no intention or incentive to share power and prosperity with the Turkish Cypriot people on the basis of equality. He said that the Guarantee rights of Türkiye, which is not an EU member state, would be ended under a federal based settlement, which is what is being sought by the Greek Cypriot Side. “They want the Turkish army to leave Cyprus and for the guarantees to be demolished,” the President added.
President Tatar referred to the recent Greek Cypriot proposals with regards to Ercan airport, where he stated: “This would enable the Greek Cypriot usurped ‘Republic of Cyprus’ to spread their authority to the North. This is an insidious proposal that is aimed at undermining our policy on sovereign equality and equal international status,” the President said.
The President expressed his gratitude to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and to all officials of the Republic of Türkiye, for giving full support to this policy. He said it is “important to pursue this policy in a determined manner and to continue to extend the Maraş opening; expanding on our other steps in order to take the Greek Cypriot Side out of their comfort zone,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Çavuşoğlu, who also addressed the conference, emphasised that the "key to the solution of the Cyprus issue, our national cause, is the recognition of the sovereign equality and equal international status of the Turkish Cypriots. . .we shall work tirelessly for the welfare and security of the Turkish Cypriots".