TRNC Foreign Minister Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu met with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.
In the statements made to the press after the meeting, Ertuğruloğlu said: “Either they, the Greek Cypriots will show the courage and stance to open a new page on Cyprus, or they will continue with their determination to continue their unfair policies towards the Turkish Cypriot people, and then it is revealed that the parties standing before us with the demand for agreement in Cyprus are not sincere in agreement”.
Regarding the 5+UN informal Cyprus meeting to be held in Geneva, Ertuğruloğlu reiterated that the meeting in Geneva has only one agenda, and that this is to reveal whether there is a common ground on which the parties can negotiate in the future.
Ertuğruloğlu said: “If there is such a ground, a new negotiation process that has a chance of success and results can be brought to the agenda. If there isn’t, this will be explained clearly and sincerely and as 53 years have been spent in vain, spending another 50-100 years for nothing will be prevented, adding that in such a situation a new process will start. We have come to a stage where it will emerge whether the international community will give up its misdiagnosis stance on the Cyprus issue, which started in 1964,” and he continued his speech as follows:
“The international community has to decide whether or not it will continue to discriminate against the Turkish Cypriot people unfairly. Either they will show the courage and stance to open a new page on the Cyprus issue, or they will continue with their determination to continue their unfair policies towards the Turkish Cypriot people, and then it will be revealed that the parties standing in front of us with the demand for agreement in Cyprus are not sincere in agreement.
If it is planned to create one legal Cyprus, it should be accepted first that there are two separate States in Cyprus. If there are two separate Cyprus states, only legal Cyprus can be on the agenda. No, there is only one Cyprus, its government is also legal, as long as it is a member of the EU and the UN, I would like to emphasise that once again, it should emerge that there is no chance for any reconciliation formula in Cyprus, no matter how many years it is negotiated. “
Ertuğruloğlu said, “The Turkish Cypriots will continue on their way with the desire to achieve success in the national cause being given in the Eastern Mediterranean together with the motherland.”
In his speech, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu stated that he has been in Cyprus to exchange views ahead of the 5+ UN informal meeting to be held in Geneva at the end of this month, the last meeting before going to Geneva will be held in Ankara and then they plan to go to Switzerland together.
Reminding that they had said in the past that they would no longer negotiate for a federation, Çavuşoğlu said, “We stand behind this promise. Not a rigid attitude or stubbornness. We have negotiated a federation for 53 years, and Turkey and the TRNC has been in a very constructive approach for 53 years and shown good intentions but the Greek Cypriot side does not want to share anything with the Turkish Cypriot people and its supporter Greece has rejected all solutions of either a referendum or at the table”.
Çavuşoğlu said that the Greek Cypriot side was rewarded as a result of the negotiations that lasted for 53 years and that the Turkish Cypriot people were punished. “We no longer have to tolerate this”
Stating that they also discussed what they can do regarding how they make the TRNC missions more active, Çavuşoğlu said: “The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus has a different status in some regional and international organisations, and we have evaluated the participation of some other organisations, especially the Turkish Council, in their activities today and we will continue to work in a coordinated manner on these issues”.
Source: TRNC Public Information Office
