Deputy PM Özersay evaluated Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades’ recent statements regarding a federal solution to the Cyprus problem on his social media account.
“Mr Anastasiades’ statements reveals his real intention”, said Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Kudret Özersay. He added “Anastasiades says let’s discuss federation but also says we will not come to the point of sharing authority and welfare, which are in accordance with a federation, and we will achieve this by cutting the political equality of the Turkish Cypriots through deliberations on decentralisation.”
Stressing that Anastasiades conveyed the message that “we will give more authority to the founding states, however, in return you should make concessions on your political equality”, he said “if you see a federal partnership not as a partnership to be governed jointly but as something belonging to the Greek Cypriots, then such statements would mean ‘you stay at the level of a founding state and do not interfere in the governance of the federal government’. Özersay said this would be very annoying.
Pointing out that federation was a partnership model which was based on the logic of sharing both governance and welfare, Özersay said “if both sides say we want a federation but also say we should find ways to avoid sharing the governance which is a sine qua non for a federation, then the point reached will not be different than the one arrived at after 50 years of negotiations”.
“If the Greek Cypriot leadership, by mentioning a loose federation, tries to cut the effective participation of Turkish Cypriots in the decision making and a rotating presidency, then these efforts are pointless”.
Özersay reiterated that the UN Secretary-General in his latest report, called on both sides to discuss whether they have a common vision on the future of Cyprus or not and also added that the negotiations could start if a consensus is reached on the methodology of the negotiations.
“When I look at Anastasiades’ latest statements, I think that the existence of a joint vision needs to be questioned seriously. I think the difference in understanding governance sharing which is a basic parameter of a federation and political equality which is an actual indicator of this in Cyprus, as well as the deficiency in the common vision, proves why we have been saying there is a need for a mentality change in south Cyprus”, he added.
TRNC Public Information Office