President Anastasiades still refuses to recognise the political equality of the Turkish Cypriots and their right to participate in governing a federal Cyprus, President Mustafa Akinci’s spokesman Baris Burcu has said.
Two separate meetings were held between UN Secretary-General’s Temporary Special Adviser on Cyprus Jane Holl Lute and the two community leaders on Sunday. Mrs Lute’s task was to establish agreed terms of reference to restart the Cyprus negotiations. After which, President Akinci’s spokesman Baris Burcu concluded that President Anastasiades did not respect the terms agreed at the last Conference on Cyprus held at Crans-Montana Switzerland in the summer of 2017.
“Lute cannot fulfil her job description. This will be reflected in the report by UN Secretary– General Guterres in the coming days”, said Burcu.
After the Akinci-Lute meeting on Sunday, Burcu stated that from the first day, the President of the Republic of Turkey had underlined the necessity to be able to resume negotiations and to find a complete solution to the Cyprus problem.
“These are: respect for past consensus, respect for the 11 February 2014 joint declaration and at the same time the acceptance of the framework presented by Mr Guterres in Crans–Montana on 30 June without any dilution.
“In each of his speeches, our President [Akinci] stressed the importance of them in every theme and conveyed that message to Mr. Anastasiades”.
The Presidential S
The presidential spokesman, referring to statements made by the Greek Cypriot negotiator Andros Mavroyannis following Lute’s meeting with Anastasiades, said that they were trying to create the perception that they had proposed ‘new ideas’ when rehashing old ideas regarding the issue of the rotational presidency. “I think this will be reflected in the report that the UN Secretary-General will present to the Security Council on 15 April. It is not a correct approach to heat and re-heat an old pilaf as if it were a new topic.
“The right approach is to keep to past compromises. Our political equality, the rotating presidency, the minimum positive principle of positive votes in the federal organs in which we are not numerically equal, in order to prove our equality in political terms, are all agreed and we should not deviate from these compromises.
“Respecting a past agreement, respecting the principles contained in the joint statement of February 11, 2014, and accepting the 30 June framework offered by the UN Secretary-General, Mr. Antonio Guterres at Crans Montana. We’re in this situation and we’re ready to get going. As long as this situation does not change”.
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