President Ersin Tatar said that a sustainable peace and stability in Cyprus can only be achieved through an agreement based on the cooperation of two states.

Making a statement while he received the outgoing Australian High Commissioner to Cyprus Sam Beever, President Tatar expressed his belief that Australia could be more neutral in its approach to the two sides in Cyprus.

Stating that the way to sustainable peace and stability in Cyprus is through official negotiations based on the sovereign equality and equal international status of the Turkish Cypriots who are the co-owners of the island, Tatar said that an agreement based on the cooperation of the two states could be fair and realistic.

Pointing to the direct trade and direct flight embargoes enforced against the Turkish Cypriot people; Tatar referred to the former British Foreign Minister Jack Straw and reminded that Straw is a strong advocate of a two-state agreement in Cyprus.

Reminding that according to the 1960 treaties, Cyprus cannot be a member of a union that Turkey and Greece are not members of, he stated that EU principles also foresee that there should not be an ongoing conflict within the candidate member states.

“Unfortunately, all this was buried and the EU allowed the Greek Cypriots to become a member on behalf of the entire island because at the time Greece was threatening to veto the eastward expansion of the union” said Tatar.

Referring to the Cyprus problem, the President said the time had come to look at the Cyprus issue from a different perspective rather than demanding negotiations based on the same parameters that have been tried and have repeatedly failed for more than half a century.

He also drew attention to the fact that there are tens of thousands of Turkish Cypriots living in the cities of Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne in Australia which provide a rich cultural diversity and wished the outgoing Australian High Commissioner Sam Beever success in his future endeavours.