Ertuğruloğlu: “Current negotiations do not point towards equality”

In his speech at the TRNC Assembly yesterday, Foreign Minister Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu stated that the current on-going negotiations do not point to equality for the TRNC.

Ertuğruloğlu said that it is natural for the Turkish Cypriot people to demand compromise because it is the Turkish Cypriot people who were ousted from the partnership, denied of their identity rights, forced into isolation and who suffered from long-standing embargoes.

Ertuğruloğlu stressed that agreements are made between equals, but that the current negotiations did not point to equality; rather a false and misleading form of equality.

Ertuğruloğlu explained that the Greek Cypriot side used the advantages of recognition, presenting the Turkish Cypriot side as a minority to the world. He added that concessions should be made for reaching an agreement and that the Greek Cypriot side is not forced into a position to make these concessions, as a result of its international recognition.

Ertuğruloğlu expressed his belief that reaching an agreement in the current negotiation process, which the two sides would accept and which would be based on equality, would not be possible.

The Minister said that as long as the Greek Cypriots were recognized as the ‘Republic of Cyprus’ and the Turkish Cypriots were seen as an ‘ethnic minority’, the only possible outcome from the negotiations would be the achievement of minority rights. He stressed that only a negotiation process between two equals could be successful.