Written statement by President Ersin Tatar following his meeting with the Greek Cypriot Leader Anastasiades
President Ersin Tatar and Greek Cypriot Administration leader Mr. Nicos Anastasiades held their first informal meeting tonight.
The meeting took place at the residence of the Special Representative/Deputy Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Cyprus, Elizabeth Spehar, in the UN buffer zone.
The written statement made by President Ersin Tatar after the meeting is as follows:
“We had our first informal meeting with Greek Cypriot Administration leader Nicos Anastasiades tonight, after I was elected as the President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
This has been an acquaintance meeting.
I thanked Mr. Anastasiades for congratulating me on my election as the President.
I also expressed my gratitude to Ms. Elizabeth Spehar and the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for their congratulatory messages.
Although the meeting was unofficial, both Mr. Anastasiades and I briefly expressed our views on the Cyprus issue.
I expressed Mr. Anastasiades that we share this island as two peoples living in Cyprus, each in their own State. Therefore, I stated that we need to be in a cooperative relationship in order to live side by side in peace.
For this, we must respect each other's equal status as co-owners of Cyprus and engage in a constructive dialogue for a cooperative relationship.
Since 1977, the federalism negotiations have failed to yield results. We need to reflect on this failure and start thinking outside the box to facilitate a realistic win-win outcome. Much has changed since the 1960s and new realities have emerged.
We support meaningful confidence-building measures and comprehensive cooperation mechanisms between the two parties.
In this context, our proposal for cooperation in hydrocarbon exploration, extraction and exploitation is still on the table. This will contribute to mutual prosperity and to the establishment of a concrete mechanism for cooperation.
I briefly expressed our thoughts on resuming the negotiation process as follows; we believe it is time to put forth new and out-of-the-box ideas on the table. The most important of these is sovereign equality.
We believe it is better to take a forward-looking approach aimed at achieving realistic and sustainable arrangements that meet the needs of our island and our region, rather than lodging in past failures.
As it is known, the five-party meeting is the proposal of the Turkish side. The UN Secretary-General announced that he would explore the possibilities of holding such a conference in a suitable environment and phase. We consider that such a conference will be an opportunity to put forward our new thoughts and approaches outside the current patterns on the table.
During the meeting, I also shared with Mr. Anastasiades our views on the issues of isolations, the closed-off Varosha and hydrocarbons.”
The written statement made by President Ersin Tatar after the meeting is as follows:
“We had our first informal meeting with Greek Cypriot Administration leader Nicos Anastasiades tonight, after I was elected as the President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
This has been an acquaintance meeting.
I thanked Mr. Anastasiades for congratulating me on my election as the President.
I also expressed my gratitude to Ms. Elizabeth Spehar and the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for their congratulatory messages.
Although the meeting was unofficial, both Mr. Anastasiades and I briefly expressed our views on the Cyprus issue.
I expressed Mr. Anastasiades that we share this island as two peoples living in Cyprus, each in their own State. Therefore, I stated that we need to be in a cooperative relationship in order to live side by side in peace.
For this, we must respect each other's equal status as co-owners of Cyprus and engage in a constructive dialogue for a cooperative relationship.
Since 1977, the federalism negotiations have failed to yield results. We need to reflect on this failure and start thinking outside the box to facilitate a realistic win-win outcome. Much has changed since the 1960s and new realities have emerged.
We support meaningful confidence-building measures and comprehensive cooperation mechanisms between the two parties.
In this context, our proposal for cooperation in hydrocarbon exploration, extraction and exploitation is still on the table. This will contribute to mutual prosperity and to the establishment of a concrete mechanism for cooperation.
I briefly expressed our thoughts on resuming the negotiation process as follows; we believe it is time to put forth new and out-of-the-box ideas on the table. The most important of these is sovereign equality.
We believe it is better to take a forward-looking approach aimed at achieving realistic and sustainable arrangements that meet the needs of our island and our region, rather than lodging in past failures.
As it is known, the five-party meeting is the proposal of the Turkish side. The UN Secretary-General announced that he would explore the possibilities of holding such a conference in a suitable environment and phase. We consider that such a conference will be an opportunity to put forward our new thoughts and approaches outside the current patterns on the table.
During the meeting, I also shared with Mr. Anastasiades our views on the issues of isolations, the closed-off Varosha and hydrocarbons.”