The President’s Special Representative Ergün Olgun on Tuesday said that the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres needed to appoint a “personal envoy” to help the sides find common ground.

Olgun said that there was currently no common ground for the launch of official negotiations and that the new envoy’s task should be to determine whether or not common ground can be found.

Speaking to the TAK news agency, President Ersin Tatar’s Special Representative Ergün Olgun said that Guterres needed to appoint someone to replace his former temporary special envoy with the same limited mandate.

He said that the Greek Cypriot side was in a false expectation that the Secretary-General will be appointing someone as if there is common ground and talks can resume from where they left off in Crans Montana.

“There will be no meaning in launching a comprehensive negotiations process until a common ground is reached and should this happen it will only serve the continuation of the status quo,” he said, adding that the Turkish Cypriot side had conveyed to its interlocutors that it will not accept the appointment of a special representative that will carry out official talks.

Olgun pointed out that the Turkish Cypriot side was as sovereign as the Greek Cypriot side and had the same rights over the island.

He added that a sustainable solution in Cyprus can only be reached within the framework of an equation that is based on equal rights and equal international status.

“The reason why we have failed to achieve a settlement to date is because of the Greek Cypriot side’s mentality which refuses to accept the sovereign equality and equal international status of the Turkish Cypriot people. We are not telling anyone that we will not negotiate unless we are recognized. This would be ideal but due to the existing equation all we are saying is recognize our sovereign equality and equal international status so that we can start negotiating,” he said.

Olgun pointed out that the UN Secretary-General had prepared a draft statement to be issued at the end of the trilateral meeting held in New York stating that the sides had agreed to the appointment of a ‘personal envoy’ but that the Greek Cypriot leader had rejected the release of such a statement.

He also said that they had rejected two names the UN had proposed to replace the outgoing UN Special Representative in Cyprus Elizabeth Spehar on grounds that they could not be impartial because of their past actions.

“Thus we approved the latest name proposed, Colin Stewart, to replace Spehar,” Olgun said.