President Ersin Tatar holds a meeting with UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy, María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar at the Presidency
“Sovereign equality and equal international status of the Turkish Cypriot Side is essential"
Photos
President Ersin Tatar held a meeting with the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy, María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar, who is on her second round of visits to the Island of Cyprus.
Speaking to the press following the one-hour long meeting, President Tatar stated that the “Cyprus issue has been ongoing for the past 60 years and has many different dimensions. There needs to be an understanding of how we have come to this position as the Turkish Cypriot Side, which is for a settlement to be based on our inherent rights, namely our sovereign equality and equal international status”.
President Tatar stated that there are two peoples in Cyprus – the Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots, who were the co-founders of the partnership Republic of Cyprus of 1960. He explained that the Greek Cypriots attacked both the British Administration and the Turkish Cypriot People, as part of their aspiration to unite Cyprus with Greece (ENOSIS), and that the Republic of Cyprus had been established on the basis of equality between the two peoples. “This establishment of the republic had been described as a success under the conditions of that period as it ensured the Turkish-Greek balance on the Island,” President Tatar said, adding:
“However, Archbishop Makarios publicly stated that the Republic of Cyprus was a springboard for ENOSIS. The Greek Cypriot Side expelled the Turkish Cypriot People from the state apparatus by force of arms, and put forward 13 proposals to amend the 1960 constitution, as island-wide attacks on Turkish Cypriots were being carried out between 1963 to 1974."
Stating that the UN Security Council had adopted resolution 186, on March 4, 1964 in order to deploy UN Peacekeepers to the Island to protect Turkish Cypriot People, President Tatar said: “However, resolution 186 treated the Greek Cypriots as the sole government, as they needed an interlocuter, because Turkish Cypriots were under siege and attack, and it was supposed to be a temporary arrangement until a solution was found. However, this solution has not been reached for 60 years, and the Greek Cypriots continue to be seen as the sole authority by the UN, despite the inherent rights of the Turkish Cypriot People and the historical developments in Cyprus.”
“We are uncomfortable that the UN sees the Greek Cypriot usurped Republic of Cyprus as the sole authority of the Island,” President Tatar said.
President Tatar stated that the Greek Cypriots are the perpetrators, who expelled Turkish Cypriots from the partnership state, who continue to act as though they are the sole representative of the ‘Republic of Cyprus’ that was established 60 years ago. “The Greek Cypriots are doing everything they can to keep Turkish Cypriot Side in isolation and embargoes,” President Tatar said. “Even direct flights and direct trade are not being conducted with us, Greek Cypriots are able to obstruct contacts and meetings of the Turkish Cypriot Side in other countries, and the EU mechanisms in particular are allowing this to happen.”
Sovereign equality and equal international status
President Tatar said: “The new position of sovereign equality and equal international status is essential and one that we have been continuing to put forward for the past three years. . . of course there is a message here. If a new and formal negotiations process is going to be started, steps have to be taken towards our demands for sovereign equality and equal international status, which is not only our inherent right from history, but also enshrined within the 1960 treaties.”
Stating that the Turkish Cypriots have sat at the negotiation table without questioning anything in the past, President Tatar said: “In all previous negotiation processes, Turkish Cypriot Side sat at the negotiating table in good faith without questioning anything, but each time the process failed, the Turkish Cypriots left without making any gains. Even in 2004, despite the approval of the UN Comprehensive Settlement [Annan] Plan by 65 per cent, the Turkish Cypriots were promised that the isolation and restrictions would be ended, that we would have direct flights and direct trade but none of these promises were honoured. However, despite rejecting the settlement plan, the Greek Cypriots continued to become a member state of the EU, without any consultation with the Turkish Cypriot co-founders of this republic or guarantor Türkiye, and despite the existence of a political dispute – which is a criteria that needs to be addressed for accession as a member state. This is the level of injustice we have faced. The then late UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, had stated in his report to the Security Council that the rationale for keeping the restrictions and isolation on Turkish Cypriots no longer existed, and he called upon the states to end the isolation of the Turkish Cypriot People which was a promise made to the Turkish Cypriot People. This report was not adopted by the Security Council.”
Turkish Cypriot Side will not sit down at negotiation table without making any gains
President Tatar stated that the Turkish Cypriot Side are seeking their rights and would not “sit at the negotiating table without making any gains that reaffirm the sovereign equality of the Turkish Cypriot People”. He added that “negotiations for a federal settlement have been tried, tested and exhausted. I explained that we are ready to participate in new and formal negotiations on a common ground that is based on sovereign equality and equal international status”.
Stating that the last federal based negotiations were held in July 2017 at the summit in Crans-Montana, President Tatar said: “The three guarantor powers – Türkiye, Greece and UK – had come together for the first time since the Annan Plan period of 2004, in the presence of the UN Secretary-General, where the process collapsed. The Greek Cypriot Side refused to share power and prosperity with the Turkish Cypriots on the basis of equality, and made extreme demands such as ‘zero troops, zero guarantee’, which everybody knows. Today, Nikos Christodoulides, the Greek Cypriot leader, was the [Greek Cypriot] Foreign Minister at the time in 2017, and it is claimed that he was the most effective member of the Greek Cypriot delegation responsible for the failure and collapse of the process in Crans-Montana.”
The President said that the Turkish Cypriot Side was “making more and more losses” each time it sat at the negotiation table. “What is the point of sitting at the negotiating table again from the same position? There is no point because they are going to play the same game again on you. Every time you sit down at the table, you end up losing something. Mustafa Akıncı, the former President, handed over a map in that meeting. I do not have such a map. If anybody has that map, they can speak up. . . the opposite side has that map locked up in a safe. In the event negotiations are started, the Greek Cypriot Side is going to take the respective map out and will say “you had handed this to us”. I have not seen that map, I do not recognise it, nor will I give any consideration to it,” President Tatar said.
Stating that he believes Ms Holguin now understands the nature of the Cyprus issue, President Tatar said: “Ms Holguin is in a position to appreciate our side of the story.”
President Tatar stated that the sovereign, independent Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus will form part of any settlement that will be reached. He said he will next be meeting with Ms. Holguin this Thursday evening (14 March 2024) on a tete-a-tete basis.
Ms. Holguin spoke to the press following the meeting where she said she had held a very good meeting, and said she will hold a series of contacts during her stay on the Island for the week and will meet with some political parties, civil organisations and the chamber of commerce.
Also attending the meeting was Colin Stewart, Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Cyprus and Head of UNFICYP.
The Presidential delegation consisted of Presidential Undersecretary Okan Donangil, Special Representative Güneş Onar, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mustafa Lakadamyalı, Confidence Building Measures and Bilateral Technical Committees Coordinator Seniha Birand Çınar, Foreign Press Officer Kerem Haser and Interpreter Özlem İnce.