The two-state solution is rhetoric and is an intermediate discourse paving the road to annexation with Turkey, former President Mustafa Akıncı has said. Akıncı stated that the two-state solution rhetoric was the same as the well-known theses of the late Rauf Denktaş, and that the Greek Cypriot attitude towards political equality was also fuzzy. The former president said that he did not expect any results from Geneva with this attitude.
Following Akinci’s statement, President Ersin Tatar issued a strong rebuttal saying that there was no intention to annexe the TRNC with Turkey. No such agenda had been raised in any meetings with top Turkish officials. He said the following:
“This is all speculation. 95 percent of my people want two states. There are also two states in what they call Federation, but we never got it. Now we say that there are two separate peoples in Cyprus and the world must accept this. We raised the bar in that respect. Therefore annexation has nothing to do with this policy, Turkey also has no such intention…
“Annexation has never been spoken of. There is a separate state here. The state here ruled itself. As the TRNC, we must continue on our way. This is the guarantee of our existence.
“We are a separate people, we have separate sovereignty. We definitely do not have a policy of annexation. This is just nonsense and confusion. It is [intended] to thwart the brave works we do”.
