President Mustafa Akinci has responded to Foreign Minister Kudret Ozersay’s statement made on social media.
“Mr. Minister of Foreign Affairs felt the need to announce through social media, that he thinks differently with me as President. It is not my style to communicate with a member of the government, which I am showing effort to be in good relations with, through the media; but since this has been the choice [by Ozersay] and since I started receiving questions after that, I must express my view,” said Akinci.
He said as far as he understood, in his statements, Ozersay said the Turkish Cypriot leader was insisting on a model based on a “sharing” federation but suggests that what now needs to be tried is a model “based on cooperation”, “hence, he thinks different from me”.
“I assume he is not claiming that I am against cooperation – he can’t say that anyway, because it was me who implemented the first cooperation project (sewage) between the municipalities after 1974. That followed the master plan that covers the both parts of Nicosia,” Akinci wrote.
Despite some obstacles he said were placed on cooperation by the Greek Cypriot side such as mobile phone cooperation and connecting the electricity grids, “are we going to stop defending what is reasonable and fair for a sustainable peace?”
“Are we going to say ‘We are done with the federal model, we only discuss cooperation of two states?’ to the advisor appointed by the UN Secretary General Guterres? Surely, the biggest obstacle against a federal solution is the understanding of GC leadership who resist sharing power and wealth [with us] but we need to stay consistent, determined, against this understanding; stick with the UN parameters and previous agreements; and demonstrate a clear position. In order to overcome this wrong understanding, we need to continue our struggle and get the support of the third parties as well.”
Clearly, he added, time was working for permanent division.
“Is this the best outcome for this beautiful island? In fact with this message I also want to call out to our community and the Greek Cypriot community. Unless we succeed a fair share among ourselves, others will share this island and its blessings.”
Yeni Duzen
