Turkish Vice President Yılmaz visits TRNC
11 January, 2024TRNC Assembly and the Turkish Friendship Group Meeting
12 January, 2024The Minister of Foreign Affairs Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu made evaluations to the Turkish News Agency-Cyprus (TAK) regarding the latest developments.
In his statements to the TAK news agency, Ertuğruloğlu stated that the new vision of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus has eliminated the possibility of a possible new negotiation process that could resume from where it left off in Crans Montana.
Ertuğruloğlu noted that the new vision, which envisages the elimination of the status inequality between the two sides, indicates to the need to start a new process.
He also highlighted that the six-month term of the newly appointed personal envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General is sufficient to determine whether there is a common ground exists between the two sides on the island.
“We have conveyed our expectations regarding the appointment of the Secretary General’s personal envoy, Maria Angela Holguin Cuellar, who will start her duties shortly, and she will fulfil her mission for a period not exceeding 6 months to determine whether a common ground exists between the two sides on the island,” he said.
Ertuğruloğlu reminded that there is currently no common ground between the two sides for the commencement of formal negotiations and that the Greek Cypriot side has been trying to deceive the world for the past 50 years with the lie that they wanted a settlement in Cyprus based on the so-called ‘federation’ model.
Referring to the last round of talks in Crans-Montana in 2017, the TRNC Foreign Minister recalled that this attempt was considered as a ‘final effort by all relevant parties.’
“During Crans Montana, the Greek Cypriot side once again rejected establishing a partnership based on power and wealth sharing with the Turkish Cypriot side. Thus, the possibility of reaching an agreement on a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation came to an end with the failure of that conference,” he said.
“Following this failure, the UN Secretary-General called on the parties to ‘think outside the box.’ In response to this call, the Turkish Cypriot side developed a new vision and announced its new proposal to the world at the informal 5+UN conference in Geneva on 27-29 April, 2021. We advocate for a cooperation model based on the existence of two independent and sovereign states on the island, considering the current realities,” Ertuğruloğlu continued.
Pointing out that the Turkish Cypriot side’s new vision essentially includes the confirmation of the ‘sovereign equality and equal international status,’ which is the inherent right of the Turkish Cypriot people, the Minister emphasized that this new vision, in order to start official negotiations, underlines the need for a new foundation based on cooperation within good neighbourly relations that can be accepted by both sides.
“At the end of this period, our expectation from the Personal Representative is to publish a report clearly stating her findings as to the realities on the island and the existence of common ground with containing impartial and realistic proposals for future steps. Our approval of the appointment of the Personal Representative by the UN Secretary-General does not mean that our new state policy on the Cyprus issue has changed,” Ertuğruloğlu said.
Foreign Minister Ertuğruloğlu said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s repeated calls at the UN General Assembly for the recognition of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus were proof of this clear and determined stance.
He also expressed the view that the Turkish Cypriot side considered the appointment of a personal envoy as an opportunity to once again record the new vision of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus on the Cyprus issue.