Reluctance to implement new confidence-building measures and efforts to limit Turkish Cypriots’ international presence do not help resolve the Cyprus problem, but instead damage relations between the two communities, Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman argued.
In a social media post, he described confidence-building measures as an established concept in the history of Cyprus problem negotiations, noting they remain particularly important because of trust problems that have developed between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots as a result of historical events and other factors.
Alongside efforts to develop new confidence-building measures, Erhurman said, actions that limit or erode existing trust should be avoided.
He went further, claiming that Greek Cypriot diplomacy promotes the argument that lifting or easing the isolation of Turkish Cypriots, and adopting new confidence-building measures, would reduce their interest in a solution and make the status quo more comfortable.
He pointed to several specific examples: the obstruction of meetings between the Turkish Cypriot negotiator and ambassadors; the cancellation of an event in Kyrenia; and difficulties created for the participation of Turkish Cypriot athletes and traditional dance groups in international events.
Reluctance towards confidence-building measures, obstruction of even the easing of isolation, and efforts to render Turkish Cypriots invisible, he said, “do not help efforts for a solution; they harm them.”
He added that recent United Nations references to the importance of confidence-building measures reinforce this view.
Concluding, he argued that pursuing a solution requires accepting the equality and equal rights of the two communities, as well as creating channels that would improve relations and mutual trust.
(Information from Cyprus News Agency)
