Özersay:  We should not be trapped in vicious negotiation processes with word games

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Kudret Özersay made a statement to Turkish News Agency regarding the concept of a loose federation which was brought to the agenda by the Greek Cypriot leadership.

In his statement, Özersay mentioned that the Greek Cypriot leadership might be trying to imprison the Turkish Cypriot side and the United Nations in the same vicious and fruitless negotiation process, with a loose federation concept that will essentially not change much at all.

“Any idea could be unofficially discussed however if we were deceived by a loose federation or similar wordplay in the presence of the UN we might fall into the trap of resuming the negotiations from where they left off. Therefore, the Turkish Cypriot side should be careful on this” he said.

“If the Greek Cypriot side try to ignore the effective participation of Turkish Cypriots in decisions and the rotating presidency then its efforts are useless. It is a waste of time to negotiate a share-based partnership without a mentality change” Özersay added.

“The origin of the problem is the Greek Cypriot leadership’s denial to share the governance and richness with us. In fact, the federation is a model which is based on the sharing of governance and richness.

If they cannot overcome their problem of not sharing, in other words if they cannot make a change in their mentality then there is no meaning in insisting on a share-based model. The Greek Cypriot leadership first used the concept of loose federation and then stressed that through this model less participation of the Turkish Cypriots in the decision making process will be possible. In summary, it’s been said that “let’s give less authority to the federal state and you should compromise on effective participation in the decision making which is a sine qua non for the political equality of the Turkish Cypriot people. Of course this is not possible and it is trickery” Özersay said.