The General Secretary of the National Unity Party (UBP) Oğuzhan Hasipoğlu has called on the main opposition Republican Turkish Party (CTP) to “succeed in becoming a united voice” on the Cyprus Problem.

Hasipoğlu said that the CTP with its statement that a “federal settlement was the only alternative” for a settlement on the island wanted to condemn the TRNC to the federation status quo under which it has been trapped for the past 50 years.

In a written statement issued on Monday, the General Secretary of the National Unity Party (UBP) Oğuzhan Hasipoğlu congratulated the leader of the main opposition Republican Turkish Party (CTP) Tufan Erhürman on his re-election as the party’s leader.

He however criticized the party’s position in favour of a federal settlement.

Hasipoğlu pointed out that contrary to the CTP’s remarks; a partnership with the Greek Cypriots was not the Turkish Cypriot peoples’ only option for a settlement on the island.

He said that the negotiations, as Ankara has stressed, can no longer resume from where they left off.

Hasipoğlu added that there are two separate states and peoples in Cyprus and that a lasting settlement could only be based on two sovereign and equal states.

He pointed out that the TRNC possessed all necessary criteria and institutions required of becoming a state.

The UBP General Secretary also said that Türkiye’s guarantees were indispensible for the Turkish Cypriot people.

“It is those who believe that a partnership solution with our Greek Cypriot neighbours who refuse to accept our political equality, who refuse to share power and wealth with us and who do not see us as their equals are actual supporters of the status quo,” he said.

Hasipoğlu called on the CTP to unite as one voice and to embrace the Turkish Cypriot side’s two-state policy.