Minister Özersay: ‘Failure of the status quo would come with going beyond the ordinary’

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Kudret Özersay answered questions on the state TV channel BRT about the current affairs.

Minister Özersay, stated that with their steps on the natural gas issue in the Eastern Mediterranean, the new approach on the fenced-off city of Maraş and questioning the status of the UN peacekeeping mission in the island, they had disturbed the status quo supporters.

On the issue of Maraş, Özersay said that the government’s decision on the fenced-off city of Maraş is a one sided opening step which will bring the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus closer to the International Law and said ‘We managed to upset the Greek Cypriot side’s balance with this move.’

Minister Özersay also stated that the Turkish Cypriot side has come to the drilling stage in the Eastern Mediterranean and this is the other move of the government which has disturbed the Greek Cypriot side.

Indicating that when the change of status of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in the buffer zone is brought to the agenda, the Greek Cypriot side is annoyed, Özersay said “If we want to overturn the status quo, we have to take unusual steps that would change the aspects. An additional step is to move forward the discussion concerning changing the status of the UN Peacekeeping Force.

Although we have come to the drilling stage on the natural gas issue, we avoid using force, instead we call for cooperation. That is an important move of foreign policy.”

Stating that as the TRNC government, the decision they made is not related with the opening of the closed Maraş to their own citizens, but they will produce a solution without any prejudice to former owners and Evkaf’s property rights, Özersay said that the former owners of Maraş are the stakeholders and interlocutors and added that the process will continue quickly.

Mentioning that after 50 years of Cyprus negotiations by continuing with the same approach, they would not obtain a different result, Özersay stated that for so many years the parties have discussed the federal partnership but they understood completely different meanings from this issue, thus they could not reach any solution.

Özersay continued his speech with these words:

“In the negotiations to be held, we should be able to say “We tried all of the ways but what we didn’t try and change is this partnership’s type, which is federal partnership.” We should be able to say “If the Greek Cypriot Administration is not ready to share its wealth and administration, then we must talk about another type of partnership. Up to now, since the two sides have agreed, we discussed a bi-communal and bi-zonal federal partnership. We cannot get a different result by doing the same things. It is an injustice for these people to sit at the table without changing anything and this will cause another disappointment.”

Ozersay stated that the steps taken in the Eastern Mediterranean since 2011 and the policy pursued, equalise the balance in the region and he underlined that we can sit at the table and cooperate on natural gas without waiting for a comprehensive solution. He also said: “The federal partnership is not the only way to change the status quo. We should have understood this in 50 years. There are multiple factors that will bring the Greek Cypriot side to the point of cooperating with us.

If the international community says “Agree on this issue with the Turkish Cypriots in order to eliminate the risks in the region “all balances will change and a partnership can be achieved. Before entering the EU in 2004 if they had said “you can be an EU member if you say ‘yes’ to the solution” then the Cyprus problem would have been solved.

International actors also have a responsibility for the natural gas. If they do not provide negotiation, we as the Turkish Cypriots will of course take some steps in consultation with Turkey. The steps that we will take can bring the Greek Cypriot side to the stage of sitting at the table.”