President Ersin Tatar meets with Alexander Downer, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Australia and former Special Advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General on Cyprus
“I am putting forward a new position on a realistic and sustainable two State basis”
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President Ersin Tatar met with Alexander Downer, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Australia and former Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General on Cyprus.
The meeting, which was held at the Presidency on Friday, was also attended by Güneş Onar, the Special Representative of the President and the respective delegations.
Speaking during the meeting, President Tatar stated that he was “very happy that Mr Downer is paying a visit to the TRNC, as someone who served as a Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General on Cyprus for six years, from July 2008”.
President Tatar stated that Mr Downer is in a “very good position, as someone who was involved in previous negotiations processes, to make an objective assessment of what has been lived in the Cyprus issue, the efforts to reach a settlement that ended with failure following the rejection by the Greek Cypriot Side of the UN Comprehensive Settlement [Annan] Plan of 2004 in the separately held simultaneous referenda, which was accepted by the Turkish Cypriot Side”.
Pointing out that, as the former UN Secretary-General Koffi Annan had stated in his report, the Greek Cypriot side had not only rejected a plan, they had rejected the solution itself, President Tatar said: “However, despite voting against the solution plan, the Greek Cypriots were one week later accepted as a member of the EU in May 2004. The promises by the international community to end the isolation and restrictions on the Turkish Cypriot Side have not beeen honoured to date, and our people, in this day and age, are still unable have direct flights and direct trade, which we see as being a violatiın of our individual and collective human rights."
The President also said that the last and final attempt of negotiations on the federal basis collapsed in July Crans Montana in July 2017. “The reasons for these failures are because of the Greek Cypriot Side’s refusal to share power and prosperity with the Turkish Cypriot People on the basis of equality in a federal partnership,” President Tatar said.
Stating that he was elected as President on a two State ticket, President Tatar said: “The Turkish Cypriots are a peace loving and civilised people who are fully aware of why a settlement has not been reached in Cyprus, and they elected me because of my two State vision that is based on our inherent rights, namely our sovereign equality and equal international status. My new vision for a settlement on this basis provides for a realistic and sustainable basis, where the two Sides can coexist as neighbours in a cooperative relationship.”
President Tatar welcomed Mr Downer to the TRNC and paid tribute to his past services to help the two Sides reach a settlement in Cyprus.
Speaking following the meeting, Mr Downer said he was “delighted to have come back to Cyprus and the TRNC and to have the opportunity to [meet] with the President. We had an opportunity to talk about the Cyprus problem and where it can go from here”.
Stating that he had spent six years of trying to help the sides reach a settlement, Mr Downer said: “My view is that this is a time that requires fresh ideas. There is no point in continuing to repeat the same mantras of history. It is a time for imagination, creativity and new ideas.”