Turkish Cypriot foreign minister tells Al Jazeera he sees little hope for negotiations, but others see a path forward.
Weeks after United Nations-led talks in April failed to resuscitate negotiations to reunify Cyprus, the Turkish Cypriot foreign minister has told Al Jazeera that the UN process is dead.
“There will not be negotiations so long as the Greek Cypriots are treated as if they are the Republic of Cyprus and so long as the Turkish Cypriots are treated as if we are nothing other than a mere community of that Republic,” Tahsin Ertugruloglu told Al Jazeera.
“Equal international status is a must.”
Turkish Cypriots declared Northern Cyprus a Turkish republic in 1983, giving it the formal title of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), but the UN Security Council immediately denounced it as “invalid” and “incompatible with the 1960 Treaty” that established Cyprus’ independence from Britain.
As a result, only Turkey recognises it.
The internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus is where Greek Cypriots live.
UN resolutions have since called on the two sides to form a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation.
Turkish-Cypriot President Ersin Tatar came to power last October pronouncing UN talks a failure and promising a two-state solution.
Yet federation was originally an idea of the Turkish Cypriots, who declared a federated state in 1975, months after a Greek coup attempt in Nicosia triggered a Turkish invasion.
Turkey still occupies the northern third of the island, saying it needs to protect its ethnic minority.
Inter-communal clashes had already segregated the two communities in 1964.
“We established the Turkish-Cypriot federated state with the expectation that the Greek Cypriots would establish their federated state,” said Ertugruloglu.
“But Greek Cypriots have no reason to accept this kind of a settlement because they are accepted by the world as the Republic of Cyprus on their own, and as such, they are able to enjoy the benefits of recognition by themselves … Why should they ever accept anything less than that?”