Foreign Minister Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu said on Tuesday that the package of confidence-building measures (CBMs) proposed by the Greek Cypriot side was aimed at preserving the status quo.

Ertuğruloğlu was responding to the views of various circles in the TRNC who claimed that the proposed measures were negotiable.

In a written statement, Foreign Minister Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu said that the so-called “confidence-building measures” package proposed by the Greek Cypriot side as if it was a new set of ideas were aimed at reinforcing the status that Greek Cypriots were in charge of the state and Turkish Cypriots were a mere community existing under that state.

Responding to views expressed on the CBMs by various circles in the TRNC, Ertuğruloğlu said that he was following the positive feedback given to these proposals with amazement.

He said that it was disappointing but not surprising to see that some circles were still adamant to accepting the Turkish Cypriot side’s position in favour of a two-state solution in Cyprus aimed at bringing about a just and lasting solution on the island.

“The same circles are still talking with hope of achieving a federal settlement in Cyprus even though this model has been unsuccessfully negotiated for the past 60 years,” he said.

Ertuğruloğlu said that it was thought-provoking as to how some circles could still not see that a federal settlement which the Greek Cypriots have been rejecting for years but using it to blear the eyes of the international community was a model interpreted by the Greek Cypriot leadership as a model which would evolve from the so-called “Republic of Cyprus.”

He added that it was necessary for these circles to first ask themselves the question as to why negotiations carried out all these years to reach a federal settlement have not been successful in order to come to terms with the realities.

The TRNC foreign minister expressed the hope that those who found the Greek Cypriot proposals that served no other purpose but to expand its sovereignty over the TRNC as negotiable will see that they are trying to be drawn into a dirty game which will rob them of their future.

“I would like to once again state that the Cyprus Problem is an issue of status. The only way to reach a realistic settlement is to set level the statuses of the two sides before starting any negotiation. In other words it should be recognized that the talks will be held between two sovereign and equal states,” he said.