Tatar: “We will not enter the official negotiation process until our sovereignty is registered”
TRNC President Ersin Tatar said: “If our sovereign equality and international equal status are not registered, we will never enter a formal negotiation process. This is a clear stance, and no force can make us take a step back from this stance. This is a national issue.”
President Tatar held a press conference at Ercan Airport before departing for New York via İstanbul. During his US contacts, Tatar will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu, Special Representative Ergün Olgun, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs İsmet Korukoğlu, and Member of the Negotiation Committee Osman Ertuğ.
At the press conference held before his departure to New York with his delegation, President Ersin Tatar said that he would go to New York to hold meetings upon the invitation of the UN Secretary-General, and that he would also hold bilateral meetings there.
Tatar noted that they will stand behind the 6-point proposal which they put forward in their meetings with the UN Secretary-General and other meetings, adding that they will convey the new policy and the cooperation of two separate sovereign independent states living side by side in Cyprus.
Stating that they had left behind the federal solution policy, that Cyprus is not the old Cyprus, this geography is not the old geography, Tatar said that there is a completely different environment in Cyprus and the region, adding that the Turkish Cypriots were expelled from the partnership republic by force of arms in 1963, and although Turkish Cypriot people said “yes” in the referendum, the admission of the Greek Cypriot side to the EU further complicated the issue.
Stating that this is the essence of the issue and that they will explain this in the meetings with the UN and with other officials, Tatar said, “There are two separate states and people in Cyprus.”
Source: TRNC Public Information Office
…i ask Mr.Tatar to recall that he may be a representative of “Cypriot Turks” but in doing so, about half of his electorate is ignored. Turkish Cypriots remain hopeful that their representation as a People who are reasoned and inclusive can be demonstrated as a Majority with Goodwill, providing for the special needs of the Minorities that live among them as well.
What more can be asked from a Greek Constituency (if one existed)? What more can be asked of the Cypriot State (if it actually represented Cypriots)? What more can be asked of ourselves, whatever ‘we’ may be as a Person? We are Individuals too, there are Universal Principals which, as Humans, we value, and respect.
My hope is that you may agree with me on these notions. Such as it is, I do not expect you to stand under the Flag of Cyprus with me, yet i ask, who has used it as a rag? Not Cypriots, (in my mind, who are not few or non-existent,) their votes say otherwise, but those whose dogma is “Greekness” and “Turkishness” who have, as Cypriots, divided us. Somehow, “this” must stop.
…and what has “Turkishness” done to Turkey but divide the Turkish People, with (its maximalist tones, and) the exclusion of people not “them” from their own representation. Cyprus torn decades is no different to the State of Turkey now: needing Constitutional reform, and needing at another level of Government, Constituencies (which represent Persons, rather than the Citizen as an Individual); as such like Canada or the USA, a BBF.
Mr. Tatar may ask himself what with Turkey’s Centennial so near, what gift Cyprus may offer Turkey, what he may do for Unity here, after-all Cyprus is an island, as a Cypriot, and emulated in high esteem celebrating this Unity there, that Turkey finds from Cypriots an end to their own Problem (not the other way around); better Statesmanship providing Hope to those, like (read: not just) in Turkey, who as Persons have distinct identities (like his electorate in Cyprus,) that they nurture, and who as Individuals expect no further distinction or discrimination being equals from their State, as well.
…let’s not forget the elections that are coming just as soon, too.
The CYPROB door to the Turkish Cypriots position has been kept closed for far too long and now the world is having to face the TRUTH and although reluctant to deal with it, in time they will and then the Turkish Cypriots will have recognition and the opportunity for self determination
A brave and commonsense statement, Mr Tatar. Let us hope that the US and EU see it as such, and that the Greek Cypriot republic realises that it carries no threat to its existence.