President Ersin Tatar met with the UN Secretary-General’s Deputy Special Adviser and UN Peacekeeping Force (UNFICYP) Chief of Mission, Elizabeth Spehar and her delegation.
During the meeting, President Tatar outlined his new approach and policies formulated to solve the Cyprus problem
Underlining the fact that, so far, negotiations for reunification under a federal umbrella have failed, Tatar said that a potential compromise should be sought based on sovereign equality and two separate states. He asked Spehar to convey this message to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
He noted that for many years, the Greek Cypriot side had demanded that the international community isolate the Turkish Cypriots, whose only supporter was Turkey. The embargoes imposed on the Turkish Cypriots and denial of direct flights to North Cyprus had impacted their ability to develop their economy. Such acts were an infringement of their human rights, said President Tatar.
Tatar added that outdated restrictions on competing in sports at international level also contravened their fundamental rights and freedoms.
At the meeting, it was reported that Spehar said that trust between the two sides was at a very ebb and that efforts should be made to revitalise the technical committees in order to implement confidence-building measures between the two sides. President Tatar responded by saying that the Turkish Cypriot side had always supported confidence-building measures and technical committee studies. He added that it is the Greek Cypriot side that should take steps in this regard, and that the Greek Cypriot side’s opposition to such approaches to improve daily life constitutes the biggest obstacle to trust-building measures. As the Secretary- General also mentioned in his reports, he emphasised that the Greek Cypriot obsession about any recognition of the TRNC needs to be overcome.
BRT
