No hope for federal solution, Turkish Cypriot leader says

LEFKOŞA

There is no longer hope for an agreement on a federal basis in Cyprus, Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar has said ahead of informal talks in Geneva next week on the future of negotiations.

Speaking to state-run Anadolu Agency before his daily visit to Ankara, Tatar said the negotiation table toppled when Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades left the 2017 Crans-Montana talks, although the Turkish side acted very well.

He noted the Turkish side made an assessment after the talks failed, saying, “there is no longer a hope for an agreement on a federal basis and a new path that will probably be adopted from now on.”

Four years after the Crans-Montana talks, rival Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders will meet in Geneva between April 25 and April 27 under the auspices of the U.N. to explore elusive “common ground” on the divided Mediterranean island.

Tatar emphasized that the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had a great command of the Cyprus issue and that he put a lot of effort into the Crans-Montana process.

He pointed out that Guterres’ problem has been the U.N. parameters based on the bicommunal and bizonal federation negotiated for 50 years, noting that the secretary-general knew that there was no realistic ground after the Annan Plan process and the Crans-Montana.

“He also knows that we will go to Geneva with a different thought,” Tatar said, referring his suggestion to both sides coming to Geneva with new ideas in his invitation letter.

Tatar stated that they would never back down from the position of the Turkish side, underlining that Guterres’s task was to bring the two sides together on common ground and achieve an agreement with the free will of the two parties.

Meanwhile, thousands of Cypriots from both sides of a dividing line splitting their island marched for peace on April 24.

More than 15,000 activists called for a federal solution in Cyprus and to open checkpoints between the two sides.