The Turkish Cypriot side on Tuesday crowed that a draft six monthly report issued United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on the state of play in Cyprus contains not a single mention of the word ‘federation’.
Huseyin Isıksal, special advisor to Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar, made the comments to Kibris newspaper.
He said the first thing that stands out is that the report does not once mention the word ‘federation’.
“And this,” argued Isıksal, “shows how correct and effective is the new policy launched by the Turkish Cypriot side with president Ersin Tatar.”
Bit by bit, he added, the demand for a federal settlement is being whittled down.
With Tatar at the helm, claimed Isıksal, the concept of the federation is being consigned to the dustbin of history.
Isıksal went on to say that perceptions on the Greek Cypriot side are changing.
He cited a Eurobarometer survey, where 25 per cent of Greek Cypriot respondents said they wanted a federal solution, 23 per cent a unitary state, 14 per cent two states, and 13 per cent a continuation of the status quo.
In Isıksal’s interpretation of the data, given that the two states reflects current reality anyway, adding 14 to 13 gives 27 per cent – making it the most popular option among Greek Cypriots.
Although the terms ‘federation’, ‘federal’, and ‘bi-zonal, bi-communal federation’ do appear in the text of the secretary-general’s report on his mission of good offices in Cyprus, these terms are not used by the UN secretary-general or UN officials.
One passage – attributed to the Turkish Cypriot side’s remarks – reads: “Fifty-six years of failure has confirmed to us that federation as a model to settle the Cyprus issue is exhausted.”
The second report is the secretary-general’s reflection on the UN peacekeeping operation in Cyprus. Here, there is no reference whatsoever to the terms ‘federation’ or ‘federal’ in relation to a Cyprus settlement.
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