President Tatar: “TRNC and Turkey in complete consensus for the Cyprus Summit”

President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Ersin Tatar received the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu yesterday (2^nd February). After their meeting an inter-delegation meeting was also held.President Tatar and Minister Çavuşoğlu held a joint news conference following the meetings.

Speaking at the news conference Tatar said that meetings were important and beneficial and added :  “The position of Turkey and the TRNC regarding the way forward at the 5+1 unofficial Cyprus meeting is in complete consensus and this gives us strength. I am happy to underline that the TRNC and Turkey have been making efforts for peace, stability and cooperation in the region.”

Indicating that at the beginning of March 2021, the informal 5+1 Cyprus summit will be held, President Tatar said “We are continuing our work towards the meeting. Both peoples in Cyprus have been living side by side under the roof of their own state for 50 years. What is important is that everyone should win in the event of an agreement to continue peace and stability in Cyprus. We are working in that direction”.

Furthermore, in his speech, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said that as the Republic of Turkey, they will give full support to the TRNC and the Turkish Cypriot people, and they will continue to support important projects.

Stressing that the Cyprus problem process was discussed with President Tatar and the negotiation team in detail, Çavuşoğlu said that the process for the 5+1 informal meeting has been intensified and continued:

“Negotiations have been held for a federation for 52 years. The negotiations failed due to the attitude of the Greek Cypriot side each time, before and after the Annan Plan. This has now been exhausted. There must now be negotiations on the basis of sovereign equality. If there is sovereign equality then there can be two states. There are already two peoples on the island of Cyprus today and there are two states. There is a de facto situation whether they recognise or not. This needs to be official. What we say is that we want a permanent solution negotiated through diplomacy. Since we have negotiated other solutions in the negotiations so far, we still could not reach a conclusion”

Stating that he had discussed the steps and principled attitude to be taken in this process at the meeting with President Tatar, Çavuşoğlu said: “As the President said, I should say that there is complete harmony between the Republic of Turkey and the TRNC about this issue as in every issue and the Turkish Cypriots also showed at the last presidential elections with their vote that they want a two-state solution, and therefore selected Tatar as President and gave him full authority. We will continue our negotiations and meetings within this framework in the upcoming period”.

Çavuşoğlu left the TRNC after the press conference at the Presidency.