Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Thursday night reiterated his support for a two-state solution to the Cyprus problem, saying, “whatever the Greek Cypriots and the European Union say, the exhausted federal model is now off the table”.
Fidan was speaking at a joint press conference with Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s foreign minister who was formerly the special advisor on Cyprus of then United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon between 2014 and 2017.
“As you know, this model was also ruled out by the Greek Cypriots. But a negotiation process, a solution process, a deal which aims to isolate the Turkish Cypriots even more and to cause them to struggle with more impossible situations is not an approach which we will accept in any way,” he said.
He added that the “choices and preferences” of the Turkish Cypriots are obvious, “but as a guarantor country, as a motherland, we always express our own views, our own stance, with great clarity”.
“We are extremely clear on this issue.”
He also spoke on the matter of the signing of a joint declaration by five central Asian states and the European Union which ruled out the prospect of any of them recognising the north as an independent country earlier this month.
Four of those states, Kazakhstan, Kyrgzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, have majority Turkic populations, and are members of the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS), and Fidan said the striking of a deal with the EU was an “understandable situation” for the central Asian states, but criticised the EU for “exploiting” them.
“There are also areas where we see the EU is trying to exploit this mutual interest. Of course, we are closely following all aspects of these developments. We are taking the necessary initiatives. We are in contact with our friends, exchanging views, and informing them,” he said.
He added that Turkey will “continue to act in accordance with the ideal of the Turkic world”.
“Some circles which want to cause trouble between us based on this latest incident want us to discuss this issue openly in pubic. As a matter of principle, we prefer not to discuss family issues in public. The manipulations of those who want to cause trouble between us and the Turkic world will not be successful in this respect,” he said.
He went on to say that Turkish Cypriots are an “essential and inseparable element of the great global Turkic family”, and that this “will never change, in reality”.
“The Turkic world as a whole will continue to stand by the Turkish Cypriots. We will continue our policies on this issue with patience,” he said.
He also said the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has shown “obvious sensitivity” on the matter.
“The work and efforts we have put forth as a ministry and as a government are obvious. However, despite all this, the fact that they are trying to create a problem which does not exist and presenting a problem which does not exist as if it exists actually shows how desperate the groups making these efforts are, and the impasse at which they find themselves,” he said.
He also made reference to negotiations at Crans Montana in 2017, where Eide was present, saying, “the TRNC has withdrawn from the federal model since that day, and we have repeatedly state that we will not waste time with negotiations which will not yield results”.
“Then, the two-state model was put forward and we continued to stand behind this model. At the enlarged meeting in Geneva last March, the federal model was not even mentioned by the UN. Instead, we focused on areas where the two sides on the island could cooperate,” he said.
Eide did not speak about Cyprus at the press conference, though he did make reference to the increased involvement of non-EU members, such as Norway and Turkey, in the conversation about defence in Europe in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States for the second time.
“We are becoming more involved. We have expressed that our collective defence should be in Nato. However, if there are armament initiatives or any other initiatives for the European family, we indicated that we could participate in them,” he said.
The joint declaration was signed in the Uzbek city of Samarkand earlier this month said all five countries “reaffirmed our strong commitment” to United Nations security council resolutions 541 and 550.
Resolution 541 said the security council “deplores the declaration of the Turkish Cypriot authorities of the purported secession of part of the Republic of Cyprus” while calling on UN member states not to recognise the north.
Resolution 550 said it “reiterates the call upon all states not to recognise the purported state of the ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’, set up by secessionist acts, and calls upon them not to facilitate or in any way assist the aforesaid secessionist entity”.
The news has generated a fierce backlash across Turkey’s opposition, with CHP leader Ozgur Ozel decrying the “bankruptcy” of Turkish foreign policy in light of the agreement.
Click here to change your cookie preferences