Foreign Minister Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu on Tuesday highlighted the importance of taking the TRNC’s new vision into consideration in order to adopt proposals to transfer energy resources in the Eastern Mediterranean to Europe.

In a statement regarding energy resources in the Eastern Mediterranean, Foreign Minister Ertuğruloğlu said that the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) continued to maintain its determined policy for a two-state solution based on the TRNC’s sovereign equality and international status with the aim of achieving a realistic settlement that will end the problem of status which constitutes the essence of the Cyprus problem.

Noting that the TRNC supported the idea of cooperation in the Eastern Mediterranean that would allow both sides on the island to mutually benefit from the energy resources in the Eastern Mediterranean, Ertuğruloğlu said that this was why constructive proposals on hydrocarbon resources that aimed to provide equal benefit had been put forward.”

The TRNC Foreign Minister once again stressed that the Turkish Cypriot side’s comprehensive and constructive proposal made in July 2019 and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s proposal for a regional energy conference which will include the TRNC were still on the table.

Ertuğruoğlu said that it was necessary to take into consideration the Turkish Cypriot side’s new vision in order to successfully bring to life plans to transfer hydrocarbon resources from the Eastern Mediterranean to Europe.

He warned that any proposals that ignored these realities were doomed to fail.

Ertuğruloğlu also pointed out that the TRNC’s new vision which is based on the idea of the ‘recognition of its sovereign equality’ was very different from the Greek Cypriot administration’s policy that aims at a unitary state.

He said that it was vital that the international community understood that the TRNC will not make any compromises or concessions from its position and that the approach to the Cyprus issue should be formulated in light with this reality.

“This is a good will intention and a realistic approach. We will not waste any more time with old policies which were ineffective. We have had enough of sneaky scenarios presented under the guise of confidence-building measures which aim to create the perception that we are a community under the Greek Cypriot state,” Ertuğruloğlu said.