The occupied north’s “foreign ministry” has dismissed President Nikos Christodoulides’s comments about a window of opportunity on the Cyprus problem, claiming they amount to nothing more than an attempt to mislead the international community.
In a statement reported in the occupied north, the “foreign ministry” said that while the Turkish Cypriot position was clear and unshakeable, the Greek Cypriot side continued to refuse to see the Turkish Cypriot people as an equal partner and claimed to be the sole owner of the island.
The statement argued that the model tested for more than half a century had collapsed and was completely exhausted, blaming what it called Greek Cypriot intransigence, maximalist demands, and an approach that ignores the inherent rights of Turkish Cypriots. Expecting different results from the same methods, it added, was a waste of time.
Responding to the UN Secretary-General’s call for the sides to propose new ideas, the statement said the Turkish Cypriot side had told all parties that an agreement was possible only with acceptance of the sovereign equality and equal international status of the “TRNC”. A new process, it said, would be possible only if those were recognised.
An agreement between the two sides, the statement continued, was possible only with two independent, sovereign states living side by side and acceptance of that reality.
The “foreign ministry” accused what it called the “Greek Cypriot administration” of trying to create artificial time pressure or a timetable tied to the UN Secretary-General’s term, describing such efforts as meaningless for the Turkish Cypriot side.
It said there was no basis to begin negotiations, and that Greek Cypriot efforts to convince the international community that talks would start were far from reality.
The statement repeated the position that the international community must take concrete measures quickly to lift what it called the unjust and illegal isolation imposed on the Turkish Cypriot people for more than 60 years.
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