President Tatar: “A permanent agreement in Cyprus can only be based on two equal sovereign states”

In his meeting with the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the Vice-President of the European Commission Josep Borrell, President Ersin Tatar  stated that a permanent agreement in Cyprus can only be based on two equal sovereign states.

President Ersin Tatar made a statement to the press following the meeting.

President Tatar said: “I conveyed to Borrell that the informal meeting which is being planned to be held in Geneva on the Cyprus issue at the end of April will be attended by the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot sides, as well as three guarantor countries and the United Nations. It will not be appropriate for the EU to participate in this meeting because as it is known, Greece and South Cyprus are EU members and it is not realistic to expect the EU to be a neutral party in this meeting.”

Tatar also conveyed that a solution based on a single sovereignty would not be accepted by the Turkish Cypriot side and that an agreement based on sovereign equality and living side by side would be possible.

Stating that the Turkish Cypriot side will go to Geneva with new ideas, President Tatar said that the cooperation of the two states living side by side, based on sovereign equality, can be a fair and permanent agreement in Cyprus”.

Indicating that the Greek Cypriot side never wanted to share the administration and riches, that’s why the only way out is through two sovereign states, Tatar stated that the Turkish Cypriot side is not without an alternative, and that if there is no solution, they will continue their way with their own state, and they will never sacrifice national interests in the face of promises.

President Tatar also said that at the meeting he asked the EU officials: “If we cannot solve a small problem like Hellim, how we will solve the Cyprus problem ?”.

Stating that the insufficiency of Covid-19 vaccines received from the European Union has been also brought to the agenda, Tatar stated that they also faced unfairness in vaccination, while 100 thousand vaccines have been supplied to the Greek Cypriot side, 10 thousand 250 vaccines have been supplied to the TRNC from the EU, and the vaccine to be supplied should be three times.

Noting that they also discussed the issue of financial support provided by the EU to the Turkish Cypriot side, President Tatar stated that the European Union promised to make a regulation for trading to EU and financial support to the Turkish Cypriots in 2004 after the referendum rejected by the Greek Cypriot side, adding that the support was below the promised figures and that the financial support should be increased.

Tatar also said that the Greek Cypriot Administration imposed restrictions on product transitions on the grounds of the pandemic, which was not true and meant a violation of the Green Line Regulation.