Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Kudret Özersay stated that the Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Anastasiades with his discussions surrounding decentralization was trying to curb the political equality of Turkish Cypriots.

“Mr. Anastasiades’ statements reveal his real intention” Özersay said and added “Anastasiades says let’s discuss federation but also says we will not come to the point of sharing authority and welfare which are in accordance with a federation and we will achieve this by cutting the political equality of the Turkish Cypriots through deliberations on decentralization.”

Özersay evaluated the Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Anastasiades’ recent statements on his social media account.

Stressing that Anastasiades gave the message that “we will give more authority to the founding states however in return you should make concessions on your political equality”, he said “if you see a federal partnership not as a partnership to be governed jointly but as something belonging to the Greek Cypriots then such statements would mean ‘you stay at the level of a founding state and do not interfere in the governance of the federal government’. Özersay, however, said this would be very annoying.”

Pointing out that a federation was a partnership model which was based on the logic of sharing both the governance and the welfare, Özersay said “if both sides say we want a federation but also say we should find ways to avoid sharing the governance which is a sine qua non for a federation, then the point reached will not be different than the one reached as a result of the 50 years of negotiations.

He also reminded that “if the Greek Cypriot leadership by mentioning the loose federation tries to cut the effective participation of Turkish Cypriots to the decision making and the rotating presidency, then these efforts are pointless.”

Özersay reiterated that the UN Secretary-General in his latest report called on both sides to discuss whether they have a common vision on the future of Cyprus or not and also added that the negotiations could start if a consensus is reached on the methodology of the negotiations.

“When I look at Anastasiades’ latest statements, I think that the existence of a joint vision needs to be questioned seriously. I think the difference in understanding governance sharing which is a basic parameter of a federation and the political equality which is an actual indicator of this in Cyprus, as well as the deficiency in the common vision, proves why we have been saying there is a need for a mentality change in south Cyprus” Özersay added.