Tatar: Christodoulides’ UN speech reflects primitive policies

Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar on Friday said President Nikos Christodoulides’ speech at the United Nations General Assembly “reflected his well-known primitive policies” on the Cyprus problem.

He said Christodoulides had made the speech on the basis of the Greek Cypriots “usurping the status for 61 years” as the government of the Republic of Cyprus.

He added that it is because of the Greek Cypriot side’s refusal to compromise that no solution has yet been found to the Cyprus problem.

“The Greek Cypriot leadership, which refuses to share the governance and prosperity of this island under any circumstances, has been usurping both sovereignty and status for 61 years, and, at the same time, has been two-faced and has tried to mislead the international community at every opportunity,” he said.

He went on to say that Christodoulides “is continuing to violate the Turkish Cypriot people’s most basic human rights” through “policies of isolation” and criticised the fact that he “dared to speak out against the motherland Turkey in his speech”.

“The facts are clear, everything that has happened has been recorded, including in UN reports. If [Christodoulides] is looking for examples of history being distorted, I would advise him to look at his own history books, which continue to instil hostility towards Turks in Greek Cypriot children,” he said.

He added, “my message to the Greek Cypriot leader is clear and unambiguous: nothing is static and the island of Cyprus is not closed to global dynamism,” before calling on the Greek Cypriot side to confirm the Turkish Cypriots’ “sovereign equality and equal international status” as a prerequisite for a solution to be found to the Cyprus problem.

He added that he “will not enter into fruitless processes aimed at contributing to the Greek Cypriots’ comfort zone,” and that for this reason, “the federal model for a solution has been exhausted.”

“Negotiations carried out on the basis of a federal solution, which have been exhausted with continuous failures until today, have prevented the unjust situation on the island from being seen and therefore have been one of the biggest reasons why the Turkish Cypriot people cannot access their basic human rights,” he said.

Tatar’s reaction comes after Christodoulides had issued a direct message to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his speech, telling him, “now is the time to deliver on your proclaimed commitment to international law and to peace” and that “no country that believes in the moral superiority of its position refuses to sit at the negotiating table.”

That speech came a day after Erdogan had told the general assembly that the federal model for a solution to the Cyprus problem has “completely lost its validity” and then called on the international community to recognise the north as an independent country.

Tatar is due to meet UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday at 6.30pm Cyprus time.