Turkish Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu: “Federation is a waste of time”

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu attended a TV programme on NTV and answered the questions regarding the agenda. “There will no longer be any negotiations on a possible formation of a federation on the island of Cyprus, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said.

Upon a question regarding the 5+UN meeting to be held in Geneva, Çavuşoğlu said that they have conveyed to their collocutors in Crans Montana that the Turkish side has negotiated a federation for the last time.

Adding that the Greek Cypriot side does not want to share anything with the Turkish Cypriots, Çavuşoğlu said that political equality is not possible under these conditions. The Turkish Cypriot side will never sit at the negotiation table again.

The Foreign Minister expressed that for the past 52 years, Turkey has escalated efforts for a solution based on a federation, but it did not yield anything.

“We need negotiations that are at the level of equal sovereignties. If there is equal sovereignty, then we can have two states,” he continued.

Furthermore, Çavuşoğlu stressed “We will attend the 5+UN meeting and express our views clearly. In the past, we supported all negotiations for a federation as Turkey and the TRNC. We also supported the Annan plan but it was refused by the Greek Cypriots. It is waste of time to discuss a federation anymore. During that waste of time, it is the Greek Cypriot side which has enjoyed EU membership and it is the Turkish Cypriot side which will continue suffering under isolations and embargoes.

Negotiating a federation will not yield a result. It is not meaningful to negotiate a federation anymore”.