President Ersin Tatar receives US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland
“A settlement in Cyprus can be reached if the sovereign equality and equal international status of the Turkish Cypriot side is accepted”
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President Ersin Tatar received US Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland where discussions were primarily held on the Cyprus issue as well as regional issues and the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Ms Nuland was welcomed by Special Representative M. Ergün Olgun.
President Tatar, who held a press conference following the one-hour meeting, stated that they first had a private meeting with Ms Nuland, before continuing the meeting in the presence of the delegations.
“We explained our position with regards to the Cyprus issue,” President Tatar said. “We explained what has taken place in Cyprus, the previous atrocities and the attempts between 1963 to 1974 by the Greek Cypriot side to annex the island of Cyprus with Greece. We explained that Turkish Cypriot people are one of the co-owners of the island and that we have inherent rights, and that it has been the Turkish Cypriot side who has, in good faith for more than 50-years, been trying to find an equality-based settlement, which has always been rejected by the Greek Cypriot side.”
President Tatar added: “Our position is that the way to reaching sustainable peace and security on the island of Cyprus and the region is to take a fresh new approach; to put forward new ideas and to think outside the box . . .which is what the UN Secretary-General had asked from the sides. It is our policy that, as negotiations for an equality-based solution has been exhausted due to the continuous rejections of the Greek Cypriot side over decades including the Annan Plan in 2004 and more recently in 2017 in Crans Montana, the way forward is for the sovereign equality and equal international status of the Turkish Cypriot people to be accepted.”
The President added that “Turkish Cypriot existence on the island would be endangered in the event that our sovereign equality and equal international status is not accepted, and we certainly do not want to return to the pre-1974 period.”
Underlining that the Turkish Cypriot side “always supports the cooperation between the two sides on various issues”, President Tatar said it was a “non-starter” to accept the so-called Greek Cypriot proposals made under the guise of a Confidence Building Measure, which "is actually aimed at spreading the sovereignty of South Cyprus into North Cyprus”.
“Confidence Building Measures (CBM’s) must not involve or imply the extension of one side’s authority over the other”
President Tatar said that they had also talked about the issue of CBM’s in Cyprus and he stressed clearly that : “CBM’s must be mutually agreed and beneficial to both sides. However, any and all CBM's must respect the equality of the two sides and must not directly or indirectly include, involve or imply the extension of one side’s authority over the other.”
Expressing that they also conveyed to Ms Nuland the importance of preserving the balances in the eastern Mediterranean, which he said is a region that continues to gain geostrategic importance, President Tatar stated that “what is pivotal is for the Turkish Cypriot people to have a say with regards to the sharing of resources around the island”. He added that “the two sides should be able to act together under a joint committee in order to share the resources around the island, which is also the most correct method to handle the issue in the context of human rights.”
“Energy issue was also discussed”
Noting that the issue of energy, one of the biggest problems of the island, was also on the agenda during the meeting, President Tatar pointed out that the only aspect and sustainable solution of this is the approach of having an interconnection system that runs from the island to the EU system through the Republic of Türkiye.
Referring to the fact that the island of Cyprus could make use of solar energy because of prolonged sunlight “which is one of the greatest resource of the island,” President Tatar said that such an interconnection system will also help make use of this environmentally friendly method of ascertaining energy, and pave the way for the use of solar energy more effectively, providing the whole island with low cost energy.
Expressing the importance of the USA's evaluation on this issue, President Tatar thanked Ms Nuland for her visit, reiterating to her that “sovereign equality and equal international status should be accepted in order for the Turkish Cypriot people to continue their existence in peace, tranquillity and security, and to pave the way to start formal negotiations”.
Ms Nuland, Undersecretary of State of the United States of America, said in her statement that she had the opportunity to listen to President Tatar's perspective and noted that they reiterated the US support for a bi-zonal, bi-communal federal solution. She added that they had also made use of the opportunity to “discuss bi-communal projects” between the two sides, as well as the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Ms Nuland was accompanied by Deputy Undersecretary Erika Olson and US Ambassador Judith Garber.