A two-state resolution for Cyprus is “inevitable,” the president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) stated on Monday.
“An agreement based on two states, the sovereign equality of two separate peoples, and their equal international status has become inevitable,” Ersin Tatar advised Anadolu in New York, the place he’s attending the 78th session of the UN General Assembly.
Noting that the TRNC has been attending conferences of the UN Secretariat yearly, Tatar stated, “They’ve always maintained the propaganda of the Greek Cypriot – Greek duo here, and for 60 years, they haven’t been able to find any justice for our outcry.”
“Everyone knows that there are two separate peoples in Cyprus,” he stated.
Tatar underlined that the TRNC, with Türkiye’s assist, has been telling the world a couple of new coverage for the Eastern Mediterranean island, which has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, regardless of a sequence of diplomatic efforts by the UN to attain a complete settlement.
Ethnic assaults beginning within the early Sixties compelled Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for his or her security. In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup geared toward Greece’s annexation of the island led to Türkiye’s navy intervention as a guarantor energy to guard Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence. As a outcome, the TRNC was based in 1983.
It has seen an on-and-off peace course of in recent times, together with a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland beneath the auspices of guarantor nations Türkiye, Greece, and the UK.
In 2004, the identical 12 months that Greek Cypriots thwarted a UN plan to finish the longstanding dispute, the Greek Cypriot administration was admitted into the EU, a transfer that Tatar stated was the results of a unilateral determination by the bloc.
He additionally harassed that Turkish and Greek Cypriots have traditionally been separate peoples on the island. “There is no ‘Cypriot’ nation. On Cyprus, you’re either Turkish or Greek. This is the way it is, and this is the way remains.”
Touching on a European Parliament report about Türkiye that Ankara has known as “a collection of unfounded allegations and prejudices,” Tatar stated it was additionally “irrelevant to the realities of Cyprus.”
He emphasised that any resolution on Cyprus that seeks to finish Türkiye’s standing as a guarantor and arrange a federative system on the island can be unacceptable.
Turkish Cypriots is not going to settle for “the elimination of their own state,” Tatar stated, including that the prevailing points might solely be resolved with a “win-win” strategy.
On the matter of vitality, he asserted that attributable to its distance from mainland Europe, the Greek Cypriot administration is outdoors the interdependence of European nations that should work collectively to resolve their vitality issues.
Everyone would profit from improved regional stability, he stated, including that “stubbornly” failing to simply accept the truth of the TRNC’s existence amounted to blocking the best way to reconciliation.
Tatar expressed his satisfaction with the state of TRNC-Türkiye relations, saying: “I have always looked to the future with hope and it will be like this from now on.”
Noting that Türkiye had allotted the thirteenth ground of the Turkish House, the skyscraper in New York that homes the nation’s native consulate and the UN illustration, to the TRNC, Tatar stated Turkish Cypriot officers held conferences there.
“All of these steps contribute to the power of the TRNC,” he stated.
Turning to latest arms gross sales by the US and France to the Greek Cypriot administration, Tatar stated these might have detrimental results on the scenario within the Eastern Mediterranean.
These relations, he argued, are illegitimate as they don’t seem to be performed beneath the approval of the island’s three guarantor nations, Türkiye, Greece, and the UK.
The Turkish Cypriot president stated that regardless of embargoes by different nations, the TRNC has flourished, pointing to massive initiatives starting from a brand new wing to its worldwide airport in capital Lefkosa and the continuing building of an undersea recent water pipeline from Türkiye.
“With these successes, the state has now come to a position where it can be a part of the two-state solution in Cyprus, with its institutional structure and all its will. This is important. The two-state solution is really much safer and safer for us. Otherwise, we would face huge risks,” he stated.
“We should never step back from the two-state solution.”
Tatar underlined the sovereignty and independence of the TRNC saying: “The borders drawn by the Cyprus Peace Operation in 1974 are our honor and dignity. We will never and cannot compromise on these borders.”
– ROAD PROJECT WITH PILE VILLAGE
Tatar additionally stated that the TRNC has been pursuing a highway building challenge between the villages of Pile and Yigitler for 25 years, lastly beginning to construct it in latest weeks so Turkish Cypriot residents in Pile, which is positioned within the island’s buffer zone, might journey to and from the TRNC extra simply.
Roads have been constructed from Pile to town of Larnaca on the Greek facet, whereas houses and a shopping mall have been erected in different elements of the buffer zone, however no one speaks about this, he stated, including that the UN Peacekeeping Force has induced all method of obstacles to the TRNC’s highway challenge.
Tatar stated greater than 500 Turkish Cypriots stay in Pile and that they’re decided to hold out this highway challenge with the assist of Türkiye.
“This is a road being constructed to address humanitarian needs. We neither have eyes on someone else’s land, nor were these efforts carried out for a land grab. It is our greatest hope and wish that this issue will be resolved amicably,” he stated.
The highway growth is strategically necessary for residents as it would give them extra choices to succeed in Pile, the place Turks and Greek Cypriots stay collectively.
Residents of Pile will be capable of journey shorter distances and won’t must move by British bases when crossing to the Turkish facet when the 11.6-kilometer (7.2-mile) building and restore work ends.
The first 7.5 km (4.66 mi) of the highway will move by the village of Yigitler, and the second 4.1 km (2.55 mi) will move by Pile.
The Greek Cypriot administration and the UN, nonetheless, oppose to the challenge.
– LACK OF DIRECT UK-TRNC FLIGHTS
Tatar additionally stated negotiations have been ongoing with varied nations for direct worldwide flights to the TRNC’s Ercan Airport.
Drawing specific consideration to direct flights from the UK to Cyprus, he stated the UK is shut with the Greek Cypriot facet.
Tatar identified that there are tens of hundreds of British nationals dwelling in TRNC and enormous numbers of Turkish Cypriots in UK, asserting that their incapacity to journey to the TRNC on direct flights has “essentially become a human rights issue.”
If the UK approves direct flights to the TRNC, it would have the Greek Cypriot administration to confront, Tatar stated, underlining that launching direct flights would hinge on the Greek Cypriot administration’s approval.
“We do not really want its approval anyway. Because if we accept its approval as the TRNC, in a sense, we will be swearing allegiance to its authority.”
“If we are thinking about the long-term existence, future, independence, and freedom of the Turkish Cypriot people on this Island, we must attach great importance to this policy, take it seriously and make some sacrifices,” Tatar added.
On the TRNC’s “Water and Soil Resources Master Plan,” Tatar stated agricultural actions in Türkiye, particularly on its southern coast to the Mediterranean Sea, are just like these within the TRNC.
“Bringing water here is a completely different economic success and has changed the face of TRNC” he stated.
Pointing to scientific analysis, Tatar stated a variety of agricultural actions geared toward productiveness of TRNC land have been carried out with success.
Tatar additionally thanked Anadolu on the finish of the interview saying the news company “has always been the voice of Turkish Cypriots.”
Source: www.anews.com.tr