Özersay: ‘There is nothing new or exciting about the tripartite meeting’

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Kudret Özersay said ‘If we continue to turn a blind eye on the actual reasons why the negotiations for the Cyprus problem have failed for 51 years, the tripartite meeting to be held in November will not be different than the previous ones.’

In his written statement, Minister Özersay pointed out that there was nothing new or exciting about the tripartite meeting scheduled to take place in November in Berlin. Özersay said ‘We must talk about the actual problem rather than repeating the very well known sentences ‘political equality’, ‘not an open ended process’ and ‘hope to be successful this time’. There is lack of common vision between the two sides and that is the reason that the UN Secretary General has not wanted to be involved in the process since 2017.’

Özersay also stated that the Terms of Reference paper could not be concluded because of that lack of common vision and a federal partnership means sharing the power and the wealth. However it is clear that the Greek Cypriot side is not ready or willing to share. Finally Özersay posed a question and asked ‘If you were accepted to be the member of EU before a solution and accepted as the only legitimate government in Cyprus, if you were enabled to drill for natural gas for yourselves, would you share the power and the wealth with the Greek Cypriots?’