TRNC President Ersin Tatar made a statement to the journalists after meeting with US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland.

President Tatar stated that they had a useful meeting with Nuland, and that they held talks between delegations after a tete-a-tete meeting with Nuland. Stating that they discussed various issues in the meeting, Tatar stated that they conveyed the position of the Turkish Cypriot side to Nuland in detail. Tatar stated that he conveyed Nuland that sovereign equality and equal international status of the Turkish Cypriots should be acknowlegded if there will be an agreement in Cyprus, because this right was already given to Turkish Cypriots with the 1960 Agreements.

Tatar said that in April of last year in Geneva, with the full support of Türkiye, he presented this new policy of the Turkish Cypriot side to the United Nations Secretary General and has been trying to explain it to all relevant parties and stakeholders since then. He also added that a settlement that did not safeguard the Turkish Cypriot people’s sovereign equality would threaten their existence on the island and would not provide a sustainable settlement.

The President noted that they discussed confidence-building measures with Nuland and conveyed Nuland that  the Turkish Cypriot side leans towards confidence-building measures however it was essential that any confidence-building measure to be implemented did not infringe the other side’s sovereignty.

Stating that he expressed during the meeting that Turkish Cypriots should also get a voice in sharing the wealth around the island and the proposal of Turkish Cypriot side for the joint committee in 2019 remains valid, Tatar said “we conveyed that in this joint committee, both Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots should act together in researching, developing and delivering the wealths around the island to commercial markets, and that this is the most correct method in terms of human rights, and I expressed that they can make an assessment on this issue.”