A loose federation is a formula which could be discussed; President Akıncı was not sidelined by Turkey, chairman of the Revivial Party (YDP), Dr.Erhan Arıklı has said.
All parties in Cyprus should understand that the Cyprus negotiations based on a federal formula would not achieve any results, therefore, new options should be sought out, he said.
Arıklı said that a “loose federation” with reduced power of central government, is a formula that they could discuss, on condition that “its context will be clarified and Turkey’s active and effective guarantees will not be diluted”.
Greek Cypriot daily ‘Cyprus Mail’ reported that “[President Nicos]Anastasiades also suggested that maybe the Greek Cypriot side should consider a decentralised federation as a form of solution, a long-standing belief he had voiced at least as far back as July 4, 2010. In another CM report, Anastasiades confirmed this idea, however, with the strict proviso that the guarantor system be abolished. [Ed.]
Referring to the statements he made yesterday after the briefing he had from President Mustafa Akıncı concerning his contacts in New York, Arıklı recalled that he had stated, that “in the framework of the principle of reciprocity, one would wish that the Foreign Minister of Turkey, Mevlut Cavusoglu would also meet with Akinci after his meeting with Anastasiades” and added the following:
“After the last briefing I had on this issue, it is with pleasure to I say that our worries regarding this matter were groundless. It seems that the impression that some circles in the TRNC want to create with the allegation that Akıncı was sidelined by Turkey and that the principle of reciprocity was discarded, were nothing else but fallacy. The same circles which always exert efforts to attack Turkey and Turkish officials found the chance to distort also this issue”.
Referring to the meeting between Cavusoglu and Anastasiades, Arıklı said the following:
“Everyone who was there, including our president, told us that those meetings could be helpful. For this reason, the Cavusoglu-Anastasiades meeting was not a surprise for us. What is important, is to see how the position that Anastasiades expressed about ‘loose federation’ can be clarified and also to understand whether or not this was a manoeuvre, being made with the aim of wasting time”.
Halkin Sesi, Cyprus Mail
