Erciyes: “As long as the political equality of Turkish Cypriots is ensured, we are open to all kinds of new ideas”

Deputy General Director of Bilateral Political Affairs and Maritime-Aviation Border, Ambassador Çağatay Erciyes stated that Turkey is open to all kinds of new ideas as long as the political equality and security needs of Turkish Cypriots are met.

Erciyes spoke at a conference entitled “Cyprus Issue: Past, Present and The Vision for the Future” which was organized by the Near East University and at which alternative models for a solution in Cyprus were discussed and pointed out that all negotiation processes between the Turkish and Greek Cypriots since 1968 failed with the last process in 2017 in Crans-Montana. Erciyes, also underlined that although there is a constructive attitude by Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots, the Greek Cypriots persistently stay away from a compromise.

“This result was inevitable because the expectations of the two sides in the island for a solution are different from each other. The parties were not actually negotiating the same thing” Erciyes added.

Noting that the last negotiation process was an indication of the Greek Cypriots opposing political equality with the Turkish Cypriots, Erciyes said that this was also the mentality which caused the Republic of Cyprus, which was established in 1960, to end within 3 years and also the rejection of the Annan Plan by the Greek Cypriots in 2004.

Stating that the Greek Cypriot side still refuses to recognise the political equality of the Turkish Cypriots in the island, Erciyes said that the Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Anastasiades still considers himself as the leader of a unitary state and regards the Turkish Cypriots as a minority. Erciyes added that Anastasiades has not taken any concrete steps even within the framework of his views put forth regarding “loose federation”, or “decentralization”.

“As long as there is no change in their mentality, the negotiations will not produce any result which will bring profit for both sides. Therefore, it will not be possible for Turkey to conduct a negotiation process of which parameters are not determined and is not result oriented” Erciyes stressed.

Furthermore, Erciyes said “For more than half a century, we have been struggling for a federal based solution. We have not reached any result yet. In that case, we have to consider to revise our targets. Under these current conditions, we neither exclude a federation model nor insist on a certain model. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in his last report pointed out the new opinions for solution of the Cyprus problem. In this context, we are open to every kind of new idea as long as the political equality and security needs of the Turkish Cypriots are provided”.