Foreign Minister of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu said that his country cannot wait another 53 years to resolve the island crisis.
He stressed the need to discuss the two-state solution on the island instead of the federal solution.
This came in an interview on the sidelines of his participation in the “Antalya Diplomatic Forum” in the state of Antalya, southern Turkey.
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Ertuğruloğlu added that “there was no meaning or success for the negotiation processes in the forums in which the Greek Cypriots were treated as a state and the Turkish Cypriots as a community (within that state).”
And he added, “We have lost 53 years (in order to solve the Al-Jazeera crisis), and we cannot afford to lose another 53 years.”
He stressed that what the Turkish Cypriot defends is equality and sovereignty with Greek Cyprus at the international level.
He pointed out that the informal talks hosted by the Swiss city of Geneva between April 27 and 29, under the auspices of the United Nations, are not considered a new negotiating path.
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He explained that during the meeting discussions were held about whether there is a common ground that would allow the start of negotiations between the two parts of the island.
Noting that the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, announced at the conclusion of the talks that no common ground had been reached.
He added that Guterres could call for a second meeting in this framework within two or three months.
However, the Turkish Cypriot minister stressed that more important than the second meeting is the results that will be issued by it.
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He indicated that Jane Holl Lute, adviser to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, on the Cyprus issue is currently holding meetings with the two parties concerned to discuss the possibility of holding this second meeting.
Since the collapse of the UN-sponsored Cyprus reunification talks in Switzerland in July 2017, no formal UN-brokered negotiations have taken place to settle the dispute on the island.
Since 1974, Cyprus has been divided between two parts, a Turkish in the north and a Roman in the south, and in 2004 the Greek Cypriots rejected a plan presented by the United Nations to unify the two parts of the island.
