Turkish Cypriot negotiator Kudret Özersay said that both sides had submitted all proposals during yesterday’s meeting. Speaking to the press after the meeting, Özersay said that both the Turkish Cypriot negotiating team and the Greek Cypriot negotiating team had done all that was necessary and that the issue of guarantees would be discussed at a meeting where the guarantor states would also be present, ‘Kibris Postasi’ reports.
According to Özersay, the UN Security Council is in no position to make decisions, therefore the guarantors and the Cypriot leaders should meet and negotiate the issue of guarantees,
In the course of the five hour meeting, the Turkish Cypriot side submitted a proposal on economy, land arrangement and EU affairs, while the Greek Cypriot side submitted a written version of their proposals on security and guarantees.
Özersay said that economists from both sides had been present at the meeting where the two negotiators discussed the “land” issues, however they didn’t address the “map and numbers” as agreed during their earlier meetings.
He noted that the next phase of the negotiations would be decided by the leaders (which is in progress today). “The evaluation of the current phase that is almost finalised will be done by the two leaders. After tomorrow’s [Thursday’s] meeting leaders will have some political decisions to make in order to determine the nature of the next phase” said Özersay.
Referring to the issue of guarantees, Özersay said:
“Looking at all the violence in some parts of the world and considering the state of international relations anyone can see that UN Security Council is no longer an effective decision making organ. If a decision on guarantee systems is left to the UN Security Council [it] will not mean anything for Turkish Cypriots”.
Özersay added that guarantees should be discussed during a meeting with guarantors and that this did not mean negotiating all the chapters with the guarantors.
