Cavusoglu says talks must be based on sovereign equality

Reunification talks based on political equality have ended and new talks should have sovereign equality between two states, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday.

“This is our idea… why? Because the talks on a federation that we engaged in at Crans Montana did not have a result,” he said during a visit to the north.

The Turkish diplomat was speaking at a joint news conference with Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar.

Cavusoglu reiterated that several times since the collapse of the talks in the summer of 2017 they had said it was the last chance for a federal solution.

“That is what I said many times and former Turkish Cypriot leader Mr (Mustafa) Akinci said many times,” he said.

Cavusoglu blamed the collapse on the Greek Cypriot side which not only refuses to have political equality, but it does not want to share anything with the Turkish Cypriots.

The Greek Cypriot side, he said, still has the same stance to date so “we said if there is no political equality then there should be sovereign equality.”

“Now we are exactly at that point. That is, for 52 years there were negotiations on a federation and each time, as was the case with the Annan plan and those before it, the negotiations failed because of the Greek Cypriot side’s stance,” he said.

If there is sovereign equality then there can be two states, Cavusoglu said.

“Anyway, today on the island of Cyprus there are two communities, two people, two states.”

The Turkish foreign minister said Ankara would not tolerate any time wasting from now on.

“We must be realists. Some speak of a two-state solution in the ‘TRNC’; of course we see this in the Greek Cypriot side, there might be different views, we are monitoring them, but at the end of the day, I know very well that (President Nicos) Anastasiades too wants a two-state solution. The other day there were also statements by the archbishop. He (Anastasiades) did not say it to me only. He said it to everyone.”