The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) is moving forward on the basis of sovereign equality and equal international status, said President Ersin Tatar on Tuesday.
“Our new understanding and politics include sovereign equality and equal international status. We tell the world that an agreement on Cyprus would be reached with the cooperation of all states,” Ersin Tatar said at Türkiye’s 13th Ambassadors Conference in the Turkish capital Ankara.
Pointing out that the TRNC had adopted a new political understanding after he took office in 2020, President Ersin Tatar said: “We can now reach somewhere in Cyprus via sovereign equality. It will not be possible for us to live with an agreement on the basis of a federation.”
Tatar continued by pledging to work in “full harmony” with Türkiye.
Pointing out that the Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades had attempted to pass on a number of proposals discussed in the past as a new set of confidence-building measures (CBMs), President Ersin Tatar said that it was out of the question for the Turkish Cypriot side to accept these proposals which included handing over the operation of Ercan Airport to the UN in exchange for other concessions.
He stressed that these CBMs were part of a wider Greek Cypriot strategy to extend the so-called Republic of Cyprus’ authority into the TRNC’s sovereign domain.
Pointing out that 50 years had been wasted trying to reach a settlement on the basis of a bizonal, bicommunal federation, Tatar said that the goodwill displayed by both Türkiye and the TRNC during this period had been squandered by the Greek Cypriot side which refused to abandon its goal to create a unitary state that would in effect unite the island with Greece.
Tatar also drew attention to the importance of the TRNC’s existence within the new conjuncture that was shaping the Eastern Mediterranean.