Turkish Cypriot leader says no formal talks without recognition of sovereign equality, status

HAMILTON, Canada 

Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Ersin Tatar stressed Thursday that formal negotiations on 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 UN 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 added.

Tatar noted that he came to the meeting “with a positive, constructive and forward-looking agenda” but expressed “profound disappointment”” over incidents on the island following the previous informal meeting in Geneva in March.

“The actions of the Greek Cypriot leadership are causing Turkish Cypriot people to be anxious under pressure and increasingly threatened,” he said.

Saying that “many Turkish Cypriots are in fear over being arrested or detained in the event they cross to South Cyprus or when traveling abroad,” Tatar reaffirmed 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,” he added.

Decades-long Cyprus problem

Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the UN to achieve a comprehensive settlement.

Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety.

In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece’s annexation of the island led to Türkiye’s military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence. As a result, the TRNC was founded in 1983.

It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Türkiye, Greece and the UK.

The Greek Cypriot Administration entered the EU in 2004, the same year that Greek Cypriots single-handedly blocked a UN plan to end the longstanding dispute.

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