If the UN Secretary-General’s envoy Jane Holl Lute says that negotiations should resume from the point at which they were left in July 2017, the Cyprus talks will fail once again, Foreign Minister Kudret Ozersay, has said.
Ozersay, who gave a speech to officials from diplomatic missions and embassies as well as academicians and NGO’s representatives at Chatham House in London, spoke to TAK news agency afterwards.
He told the agency that the important thing is not the resumption of the negotiations but to examine the reasons for their failure. If Lute comes and says “let us continue the negotiations from the point they were left”, this will lead the process nowhere, he said. Ozersay noted that only if an answer to the question of why the negotiations have failed for the past 50 years is found, a road map indicating where to head next could be drawn up.
The foreign minister pointed out that 14 years ago, the then UN Secretary-General stated that the Greek Cypriot community was not ready to share Cyprus’ administration and wealth with the Turkish Cypriots. He added that the question is whether this situation has changed and are the Greek Cypriots more prepared for this 14 years on.
There have been two developments which have made the Greek Cypriots even more distanced from sharing power and the wealth of Cyprus, Ozersay said. One of these developments was the accession of the Republic of Cyprus to the EU and the other the explorations for natural gas prior to a solution to the Cyprus problem without consulting the Turkish Cypriots. All this has been witnessed by the international community which has remained silent.
Ozersay said that in his speech, he referred to these issues and to what could be done in the future and replied to the audience’s questions.
Kibris
