Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on Friday warned against “leaking”, “distortions”, and “manipulations”, following media reports that he had accepted, and then subsequently rejected, a proposal to repopulate Varosha with Greek Cypriots under the United Nations’ administration.

“It is claimed that [President Nikos] Christodoulides made a proposal to me regarding Varosha, which I initially accepted but later rejected. The alleged reason for this is that, after I accepted it, Turkey instructed me to reject it. The source? A newspaper in the south,” he said.

He then asked, “did the Greek Cypriot government confirm the newspaper’s report?”, before answering the question by saying that “according to the Greek Cypriot press, they neither confirmed nor denied the proposal itself, let alone my acceptance or rejection of it”.

On this front, he raised three points, firstly saying that “if I had said ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to any proposal, the only person who could have heard me say it would have been Christodoulides, because the meeting was one-on-one”, but that “somehow, a Greek Cypriot journalist ‘found out’ what I said”, before asking, “is that not interesting?”.

His second point was that Christodoulides had only raised his 19 new points for discussion at the two leaders’ most recent meeting. As such, he asked, “if I said ‘yes’ at that meeting, when could I have possibly said ‘no’?”.

“Most importantly, does anyone in this country truly believe that I, or anyone else, would say ‘yes’ the moment I heard a proposal regarding an issue as significant and as sensitive as Varosha, let alone in one made right now in the media spotlight?” he asked.

He added, “could I, or any negotiator, be that amateurish?”, and then asked, “would one not at least say, ‘let me examine it’, or something similar”.

“Surely, one does not need to be the brightest or most knowledgeable person in the world to answer these questions. A little thought, logic, and reasoning enough. ‘Leaking’, ‘distortions’, ‘manipulation’, and the like, who, or which side, feels the need for such tactics. I suppose this is something worth reflecting on,” he said.

‘I have not even consulted with any Turkish official’

Given this “leaking”, “distortions”, and “manipulations”, he asked, “how must trust can the ‘other side’ place in those who resort to these methods?”.

He then closed his statement by saying that, “for the avoidance of doubt”, he has “not even consulted with any Turkish official regarding such a proposal”.

It had been reported earlier this week that Christodoulides had proposed that Varosha, which has been uninhabited since 1974, be repopulated with Greek Cypriots under UN administration, and that the port of Famagusta be opened to international maritime traffic, operated, as it is today, by the Turkish Cypriot administration, under European Union supervision.

Government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis had been asked whether he could verify the reports on Thursday, and said only that Christodoulides’ 19 points touched on “all three pillars set out by the UN secretary-general” Antonio Guterres.

Guterres had said when he visited the island in July that an enlarged meeting will only be convened “after adequate progress” is achieved on confidence-building measures, the meeting’s methodology, and the substance of the talks.