Tatar reaffirms he is Christodoulides interlocutor not Turkey

President Nikos Christodoulides “is trying to look cute for Turkey”, Turkish Cypriot Leader Ersin Tatar said on Thursday.

Tatar was speaking to Kibris in reaction to comments from Christodoulides regarding the potential involvement of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in a solution to the Cyprus problem.

Tatar said, “I am the interlocutor of the Greek Cypriot leader. There are two separate peoples in Cyprus, Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots. Christodoulides’ interlocutor is not the President of the Republic of Turkey, it is me.”

He added, “the interlocutor of the south in the Cyprus problem is the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. He is trying to look cute to Turkey. He is trying to be nice to Turkey to get Turkey’s support.”

He also touched on the matter of UN Envoy Maria Angela Holguin, who is set to return to Cyprus in March.

“There is a problem of trust between the two sides. Now, she is doing her research, she talked to us, she talked to South Cyprus, she says she talked to the guarantor countries. The reason for her coming is to see whether or not there is common ground for meetings to start again,” he said.

He added his commitment to ensuring “sovereign equality” for the Turkish Cypriot side as a prerequisite for talks to recommence.

Speaking about the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS), he confirmed his plans to attend the informal summit in the Azerbaijani town of Susha in July on the invite of the country’s President Ilham Aliyev.

He also stated his intention to attend October’s summit in Kyrgyzstan, though accepted that factors outside his control may make this less possible.

“Some problems occurred in the past, because the European Union and others, in a way, experienced problems with the prodding of South Cyprus,” he said.

He said, however, that “in the next period, especially after things become clear in that meeting in Azerbaijan, I believe that within the OTS, every country should comply with the decisions taken there and therefore we should be represented there with our own flag in the meetings held.”

“I believe it will be this way,” he added.

Tatar met Kyrgyzstan’s President Sadyr Japarov in December during an official visit to the country, describing the visit as “very successful”.