Tatar to meet with UNSG & GC leader Anastasiades
Date Added: 27 September 2021

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will be meeting with two leaders, on Monday, in a bid to find common ground for the resumption of the peace talks.

The meeting will take place in New York in the framework of a lunch (NY time) the Secretary-General will host for President Ersin Tatar and the Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades.

Earlier on Saturday, the UN chief met with President Ersin Tatar.

Evaluating his meeting to BRT, President Ersin Tatar said that he had conveyed to the UN Secretary-General the reasons and rationale behind the Turkish Cypriot side’s vision and position.

He said he told Guterres that official talks aimed at reaching a comprehensive settlement to the Cyprus Problem could only resume as and when the sovereign equality of the Turkish Cypriot side was accepted.

Tatar said he had explained to the Secretary-General that the Greek Cypriot side’s proposal to resume talks from where they left off in Crans Montana was not realistic and would only mean the continuation of the status quo.

He also said that the technical committees could work harder to enhance cooperation between the two states, creating trust and confidence through a bottom-up approach.

“A solution in Cyprus can only be possible in an atmosphere of trust,” Tatar said, adding that he would continue to raise this issue when he meets with the UN Secretary-General and Greek Cypriot leader on Monday.

Referring to the address given by the Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades at the UN General Assembly, President Ersin Tatar said that Anastasiades’ remarks did not reflect the truth.

“I explained to Mr Guterres that the troubles in Cyprus did not begin in 1974 but in 1963. The arrival of UN peacekeepers on the island in 1974 is proof of this. The Turkish Cypriot people achieved their freedom and independence through the 1974 Turkish Peace Operation and there has been no bloodshed since then,” he said.

Tatar also said that he had warned the Secretary-General that the next UN special envoy he shall appoint should not exceed his/her authority or mandate.

He reminded that Turkey supported the Turkish Cypriot side’s vision for a two-state solution and that the Greek Cypriot side’s goal of absorbing Turkish Cypriots as a minority after scrapping the TRNC through federal settlement will never be accepted.