Accepting the sovereign equality and equal international status of Turkish Cypriots is one side of Ersin Tatar’s pursuits on the Cyprus issue, and it is a position he has reiterated almost daily for the last three years.
However, the leader of the Turkish Cypriots is now attempting to exploit the ongoing impasse on the Cyprus issue to achieve his next goal: the derecognition of the Republic of Cyprus, Phileleftheros writes.
During his meeting with the UN Secretary-General last Friday, Ersin Tatar, as he revealed in his statements, argued that the deadlock on the Cyprus issue is also due to UN Security Council Resolution 186 of March 4, 1964.
This resolution recognises the Republic of Cyprus as the legitimate government of the entire island. The Turkish side has since been trying to overturn this decision but has not succeeded so far.
In his statements upon returning to the occupied areas, Ersin Tatar said (source: Turkish Cypriot press and PIO) that things in the Cyprus issue have ‘further complicated the whole matter with UN Security Council Resolution 186 of March 4, recognising the ‘Republic of Cyprus’ as the government of the entire island’.
He also mentioned that this situation continues with the accession of ‘South Cyprus’ to the European Union.
Ersin Tatar also said that he told the Secretary-General that under these conditions, “it would not be right to enter into a negotiating process without confirming our inherent acquired rights stemming from the Founding Agreements of 1960, and we will not accept this. He said he knows this too.”
Elsewhere in his statements, he argued that “there must be a just, permanent, sustainable and practical agreement because today there are two states in Cyprus. There are two peoples, two democracies, two authorities, and this situation has been ongoing for 60 years. Therefore, it is not possible to turn back the clock.”
The leader of the Turkish Cypriots sets as a precondition for agreeing to discuss the restart of negotiations the lifting of the so-called embargoes. As he said to Antonio Guterres, “The embargoes and restrictions imposed on the Turkish Cypriots should be lifted from now on and the mentality that prevents Turkish Cypriots from meeting with various global institutions and organisations should end. We conveyed to him that this practice against the Turkish Cypriots is a great injustice at a time when democracy and human rights are valued.”
Tatar was quick to blame the Greek Cypriot side for trying to create impressions of progress on the Cyprus issue due to the appointment of the personal envoy of the Secretary-General: “From our side, there was a positive meeting because the Greek Cypriot side is trying to create the impression that a process is starting due to the work of the personal envoy of the Secretary-General, María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar, here. We conveyed that a new process can only start by confirming our new policy based on sovereign equality and equal international status and that if there is to be an agreement in Cyprus, it can only be achieved through the cooperation of two states, and we will not reach an agreement by being patched into the Republic of Cyprus”
He raised the issue of the Astromeritis road
The Turkish Cypriot press, in its reports on Tatar’s trip to New York, notes that it came as a surprise that the Turkish Cypriot leader raised the issue of the road at Astromeritis during his meeting with the UN Secretary-General.
As Kibris writes (source: PIO), Ersin Tatar told Antonio Guterres that “if the Greek Cypriots do not stop the construction of the road they are carrying out in the buffer zone, the Turkish Cypriot side will resume work to complete the road in Pyla.”
The UN envoy will return in May
Ersin Tatar’s statements also reveal that María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar will make her third trip to the island in May, after Easter.
In an interview with Sputnik Globe news agency (source: PIO), Tatar noted that the UN’s Secretary-General’s envoy took up her duties in January and completed the first three months of the six months to explore whether there is common ground between the parties.
He pointed out that no common ground has been found in the two rounds of meetings Holguín Cuéllar has had so far.
