Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar described yesterday’s statements by Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides in relation to a UN mission for a trilateral meeting with Antonio Guterres as an “attempt to manipulate him based on his personal concerns” more than to create impressions.

In a written statement to the Turkish Cypriot “news agency”, Tatar claimed that “the biggest diplomatic mistake made with these statements is that (President Christodoulides) used the UN Secretary General as a tool by invoking his name.”

It should be noted that this was the Turkish Cypriot leader’s third statement in 24 hours after President Christodoulides’ initial statements about a possible trilateral meeting in New York and the first in which E. Tatar did not mention it.

Wanting to send a message to the Greek Cypriot “people”, Ersin Tatar said that “they should not be deceived or fooled by the Greek Cypriot leader’s rhetoric that negotiations will continue from where they left off, because these statements are both flimsy and far from reality.”

He argued that President Christodoulides “fell into great despair, especially after the submission of the report of the UN Secretary General’s personal envoy Maria Angola Olegin Quayar to Antonio Guterres and the end of her mission. The Personal Envoy found that there was no common ground between the two sides for a new and formal process and wrote this down to the UN Secretary General. This means that it becomes official that the federation, for which we withdrew our consent and which completely collapsed in Crans-Montana in 2017, has no basis for consensus on the Cyprus problem,” the Turkish Cypriot leader noted.

According to Tatar, “the most unacceptable daring of the Greek Cypriot leader”, he said, was that he spoke about the Turkish Cypriot “people”. The Turkish Cypriot leader claimed that President Christodoulides’ greatest effort is “to continue the ‘isolation’ imposed on Turkish Cypriots”. For Ersin Tatar, this is an insult “not only to me, but also to my people. The future of the Turkish Cypriot ‘people’ is not subject to either the Greek Cypriot leader or the Greek Cypriot mentality,” he noted.

They will not, he continued, “allow the Greek Cypriot administration”, as he called the Government of the Republic of Cyprus, “to maintain the regime it has usurped for so many years”, he argued.

“We will not consent to the violation of the most basic human rights of my ‘people’ on this island. We will not play a role in the continuation of the comfort zone they want to maintain thanks to unfair and unresolved negotiation processes. This era is over. On this occasion, I find it useful to reiterate: the negotiation processes on the basis of federation are over. The federation basis has collapsed and will never return. Therefore, my message to the Greek Cypriot ‘people’ is not to be fooled by the Greek Cypriot leader’s rhetoric that the negotiations will continue from where they left off. They should not be deceived or fooled, because these talks are both flimsy and far from reality.”

He reiterated that a new and formal process can only begin with the confirmation of “the sovereign equality and equal international status of Turkish Cypriots.”

“As long as the cruelty of ‘isolation’ imposed on my ‘people’ continues, we will not take any action to normalize this unjust, illegal and inhumane practice. It must be fully understood that this is my guide to the next steps that may be taken these days while it has become clear that there is no common ground,” he continued.

A just and lasting solution in Cyprus can only be achieved on the basis of cooperation between the “two states,” he reiterated, saying that the security, prosperity and future of Turkish Cypriots “are in safe hands. The support provided by our motherland Turkey in almost every field is the most important assurance for this,” he noted.