Turkish side to negotiate only two-state solution on Cyprus

NICOSIA

Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots will pursue a two-state solution on Cyprus and will seek if there is an opportunity in this bid during a new initiative by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has said.

“If there are sovereignty and equity, then there can be a two-state [solution],” Çavuşoğlu said on Feb. 2, speaking at a joint press conference with Turkish Cyprus President Ersin Tatar.

Çavuşoğlu said Ankara and Nicosia are on the same page on this issue.

The last elections in Turkish Cyprus revealed that the Turkish Cypriots favor a two-state solution, he added.

During the last negotiations in Crans-Montana, the Turkish side said that they were making the last negotiations for a solution based on federation, but the process failed, Çavuşoğlu recalled.

The new round of talks based on a solution of a federation is not on their agenda, Tatar said, noting that he openly expressed to the U.N. envoy that they would not discuss the federation with Greek Cyprus and that the only viable solution was to endorse a two-state solution.

Çavuşoğlu had discussions for two days on the Island to coordinate their positions concerning the future steps to be taken for resolving the Cyprus problem before 5+1 format talks as Ankara urged the U.N. to stop relying on “a tested and exhausted process” that has failed to resolve the Cyprus dispute for “more than 50 years.”

The visit comes after Guterres announced his intention to invite Turkish and Greek Cypriots as well as three guarantor countries Turkey, Greece and the United Kingdom to New York for 5+1 format talks.

The forum will provide an opportunity for the parties to express their respective views and to see whether there is a ground to launch a new U.N. effort for the resolution of the decades-old problem.

The island of Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when a Greek Cypriot coup was followed by violence against the island’s Turks and Turkey’s intervention as a guarantor power.

It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Turkey, Greece and the U.K. Turkish Cyprus was founded in 1983.