Newsletters
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Ersin Tatar said Thursday that formal negotiations to resolve the Cyprus issue will not resume unless the sovereign equality and international status of Turkish Cypriots are recognized.
“We obviously, in the last four years, have consolidated our new policy that unless our sovereign equality and equal international status is reaffirmed, we will not resume formal negotiations for the resolution of the Cyprus problem,” Tatar told reporters at a news conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York, following an informal meeting on Cyprus.
“Because we believe very much that these assets—our sovereign equality and international status—they are our inherent rights,” he said.
Tatar said he attended the meeting “with a positive, constructive and forward-looking agenda,” but voiced “profound disappointment” over recent developments on the island following the last informal meeting in Geneva in March.
Tatar criticized the Greek Cypriot leadership, saying their actions are stoking fear among Turkish Cypriots.
“The actions of the Greek Cypriot leadership are causing Turkish Cypriot people to be anxious, under pressure and increasingly threatened,” he said. “Many Turkish Cypriots are in fear over being arrested or detained in the event they cross to South Cyprus or when traveling abroad.”
He reaffirmed the TRNC’s position that “there are two states and two democracies, which reflect the will of the Turkish Cypriot people and the Greek Cypriot people, which have been in existence in Cyprus for the last six years.”
“If there is to be a new and formal negotiation process, it must be based on the realities on the ground, treating the two sides equally, fairly and with dignity,” Tatar added.
Cyprus has been divided for decades between Turkish Cypriots in the north and Greek Cypriots in the south, despite repeated U.N.-led efforts to achieve a comprehensive settlement.
Ethnic tensions and violence erupted in the early 1960s, forcing Turkish Cypriots into enclaves for protection.
In 1974, a coup by Greek Cypriots aimed at annexing the island to Greece prompted Türkiye to intervene militarily as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots. The TRNC was declared in 1983.
Peace talks have repeatedly stalled, including a failed initiative in 2017 in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, under the auspices of the U.N. and the island’s guarantor powers: Türkiye, Greece, and the United Kingdom.
The Greek Cypriot administration joined the European Union in 2004, the same year it rejected a U.N. plan to reunify the island, despite support from Turkish Cypriots.
1 min read
3 min read
