President Akinci hopes that the South Cyprus elections in May will not negatively affect the Cyprus negotiations.
The president’s spokesman Baris Burcu, has said the election process in South Cyprus would hopefully not hamper the positive environment established with the peace talks, which were re-launched in May 2015 to find a solution to the four-decade dispute. “Our wish is that a positive attitude is implemented in this [election] process and [that the process is] kept away from discourse and distortion that can harm the resolution process,” said a statement issued by Burcu.
According to the statement, while gaining the majority vote of Greek Cypriots, who in 2004 rejected the Annan plan to unify the island, was crucial in the pre-election stage, it was also crucial to win the majority of Turkish Cypriots, who looked for a solution years ago but were let down since they could not get a positive response.
The Greek Cypriot elections, to be held on 22nd May, will elect 56 of 80 seats in the House of Representatives of the Republic of Cyprus, which currently only represents the Greek Cypriot community. The remaining 24 seats were elected by Turkish Cypriots in the past. However, because of the partition in 1974, these 24 seats are left unfilled.
Burcu said the declaration announced on 11th February, 2014, between the two sides of the island was an important document upon which the peace talks were based. He said that serious developments had been made on the topics of administration and distribution of power, economy, the EU and property ownership.
“As both sides do not officially recognise each other and as we are not negotiating a confederation of two sovereign states, it is natural that we will build a United Federal Cyprus with two founding states,” said Burcu in the statement, adding that the 2014 declaration clearly stated this framework.
The joint declaration announced by the UN mission in Cyprus on 11th February, 2014 stated that a settlement between the two sides “will be based on a bi-communal, bi-zonal federation with political equality” after the presidents of Turkish and Greek Cyprus parties met in the UN buffer zone in Nicosia.
The statement added that the negotiations process was trying to create a new structure in Cyprus, not to “amend the ‘Republic of Cyprus,’ which currently only represents the Greek Cypriot community.”
Hurriyet
