Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Kudret Ozersay, has called on the UN Secretary-General’s Temporary Special Adviser on Cyprus, Jane Holl Lute to admit that there was no common ground between the two sides for reaching a federal solution in Cyprus. Addressing a conference at the Near East University, during which alternative solution models for Cyprus were discussed, Ozersay referred to Lute and said:
“One does not need to be a scientist to say that there is no common ground between the sides within the framework of a federal partnership in Cyprus. Courage should be exhibited now. The period of pretending should end now. […] Within this framework, Lute should make her evaluations based on her observations the soonest and come out and announce them without hiding behind her hands. We need UN officials who can speak the truth while they are on duty and not UN officials who find their courage after their retirement”.
Referring to Greek Cypriot, Greek, British and other foreign academics, intellectuals and opinion leaders, Ozersay said that new ideas were needed outside the “established molds” and added that the Turkish Cypriot side has started thinking of new ideas. He added that these new ideas should be in “harmony with the existing conditions on the island” and that ideas which ignored the conditions which exist on the ground were doomed to failure.
Ozersay reiterated that the Greek Cypriot side did not wish to share the administration and wealth with the Turkish Cypriot side and that the two sides had a different understanding of the term bi-zonal, bi-communal federation, political equality and the expression that “the status quo cannot continue”.
The foreign minister said that the way out was the peaceful coexistence of the two separate identities, which will always exist on the island and the two separate peoples with their own institutions and their own states, whatever their name is. He argued that this could always be turned into a partnership in a different manner and that they should always be open to such an event.
UNSG’s Temporary Special Adviser on Cyprus Jane Holl Lute will have separate meetings with the two community leaders on Sunday.
Halkin Sesi