Turkish FM: ‘Sovereign equality required to resolve Cyprus issue'

The Turkish foreign minister on Tuesday stressed the importance of negotiations based on sovereign equality to resolve the Cyprus issue, reports Anadolu Agency.

Negotiation on sovereign equality is required in resolving the Cyprus issue, “if there is sovereign equality, then there can be two states,” Mevlut Cavusoglu told a joint news conference with Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), President Ersin Tatar, in Lefkosa.

Stressing the UN’s efforts after Turkey’s proposal of an informal 5+1 meeting, Cavusoglu said: “Because the negotiations we conducted in Crans Montana [talks of 2017] for a federation have failed.”

He added that during the meetings in Crans Montana, both Turkey and the TRNC said these were “the final negotiations for the federation, we will not negotiate for the federation in the next period”.

Cavusoglu noted that the search for a solution on the Cyprus issue for 52 years has been unsuccessful due to the attitude of the Greek Cypriot side, which “does not want to share anything with the Turkish Cypriot people and with the TRNC”.

READ: Turkey and Greece resume Mediterranean crisis talks

“There are already two communities on the island of Cyprus, two peoples, two states,” he added.

“So there is a de facto situation whether they recognise it or not. This needs to be formalised.”

Pointing out negotiations through diplomacy for a permanent solution on the island, Cavusoglu said: “Since we have negotiated on something else during the talks so far, we have not come to a conclusion.”

Last month, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he intends to convene a meeting with Cyprus parties in early March.

The meeting will be informal without pre-conditions to allow the parties to see that there is a change in administration in Northern Cyprus, Guterres said during his first news conference in 2021.