President Ersin Tatar has said that he will not be meeting with the Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades in New York for a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

He said that the Greek Cypriot leader was not a candidate in the upcoming presidential elections in the South which was why it was meaningless to meet with him.

Speaking on the Turkish NTV news channel as part of his contacts in the Turkish capital Ankara, President Ersin Tatar ruled out the possibility of a meeting with the Greek Cypriot leader in New York.

Tatar said that he would however be meeting with the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and that what was important was showing the world that there are two peoples in Cyprus.

“Since Mr Anastasiades will not be a candidate in the upcoming presidential elections in South Cyprus in February there is no point in us coming together for a tripartite meeting. In any case there are confidence-building measures (CBMs) which the Greek Cypriot side proposed. These are impossible for us to accept. They [the Greek Cypriots] are still insisting on a federal settlement with the aim of extending their sovereignty to the north. We cannot accept these proposals which are full of traps,” he stressed.

Tatar however pointed out that contrary to the Greek Cypriot side’s CBM proposals, the Turkish Cypriot side’s proposals aimed to enhance cooperation between the two sides.

President Tatar said that the Greek Cypriot side’s understanding of a federal settlement was very different to what the Turkish Cypriot side envisaged.

“They want zero troops and zero guarantees, the scrapping of the system of guarantees. It is out of the question for us to accept these demands. We suffered greatly at the hands of Greek Cypriots before 1974, we were subjected to massacres and genocide. Never again,” he added. Tatar said that he will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu and his negotiating team in New York.

He also said that he will be listening to the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s address to the UN General Assembly as well as hold bilateral contacts.

Evaluating the Greek Cypriot side’s request for the appointment of a UN special envoy to Cyprus, Tatar pointed out that he had told the UN Secretary-General last year that the person to be appointed needed to be his special representative.

Also touching upon the issue of hydrocarbons, Tatar said that the Turkish Cypriot people had as much a right over the island’s resources as the Greek Cypriots.

He however said that it was best to settle the matter through logic and common sense.