The international community should rehabilitate the Turkish Cypriots

Receiving the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Representative to Cyprus Elizabeth Spehar, who made farewell visits due to the expiration of her term of office, President Tatar stated that he re-explained the position of the Turkish Cypriot side regarding the Cyprus issue.Making statements following his meeting with Spehar, President Ersin Tatar thanked Spehar for her contributions and wished her success in her future endeavours.Indicating that there is no change in the position of the Turkish Cypriot side and that there will be no change, Tatar said, "Our demand from the international community and the United.

Tatar noted that next week he will travel to New York to hold various talks, including with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, as part of UN General Assembly meetings.

“I told Spehar that there is no change, and there will be none, in the position of the Turkish Cypriot side. Considering the realities of Cyprus, what we seek from the international community and the UN is the acceptance of an agreement on the basis of equality,” Tatar said.Spehar, for her part, thanked Tatar and his team for their cooperation during her tenure.Spehar expressed hope that Tatar's meeting with Guterres will yield a positive result.

The 76th session of the General Assembly will open on Sept. 14, and the first day of the high-level General Debate will be Sept. 21.Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the UN to achieve a comprehensive settlement.Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety.In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece's annexation led to Turkey's military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence. As a result, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) was founded in 1983.

Statement by TRNC Foreign Minister, H.E. Mr. Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu regarding Kathimerini newspaper’s interview with Stephen Lillie, British High Commissioner accredited to the Greek Cypriot Administration In a statement to Kathimerini newspaper, Stephen Lillie, British High Commissioner accredited to South Cyprus, has pointed out that federation is the only way out for an agreement that will be reached on the Cyprus issue.

The remarks of the British High Commissioner mean nothing but the repetition of the negotiation process that has trapped the Cyprus issue in a deadlock. The language adopted by the High Commissioner portrays that the typical colonial mindset is still ongoing.

Lillie’s statement that United Kingdom’s initiatives are compatible with Anastasiades’s idea of decentralized federation, demonstrates, once again, its well-known pro-Greek Cypriot policy on the Cyprus issue.  The stance of the UK on Cyprus, as one of the guarantor countries, is unacceptable. As a matter of fact, among the guarantor countries, only Turkey fulfills the duties and obligations of being a guarantor, while the others are engaged with supporting and promoting the racist and bigoted Greek Cypriot policies.

The negotiation processess carried out on this ground for years failed due to the Greek Cypriot side’s refusal to share power and prosperity with the Turkish Cypriot people. The repeated failures prompted the Turkish Cypriot side to put its new vision forward in order to reach an acceptable and sustainable agreement.The new vision of the Turkish Cypriot side was registered during the 5+UN informal meeting held in Geneva. Our proposal is based on the principle necessitating the confirmation of our inherent rights, namely sovereign equality and equal international status.It is futile to insist on a so-called solution model that does not foresee the said principle and that can serve only to the continuation of unjust and inhumane isolation imposed on the Turkish Cypriot people. We demand that the UK, which is one of the countries that knows the Cyprus issue very well, should embrace this reality as soon as possible and put an end to its pro-Greek Cypriot policy at the expense of the Turkish Cypriot people for the sake of guaranteeing the future of the two sovereign base areas.