Erhurman: Guterres asked for progress on seven points, we are ready on all seven

Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on Wednesday said that United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had demanded that progress be made on seven separate topics on the Cyprus problem, and declared that the Turkish Cypriot side is ready to make progress on all seven. Those seven topics, he said, are the issues of crossing points, mine clearance, the citizenship of children born of “mixed marriages”, sports, joint disaster response, and a joint mechanism to combat irregular migration. “We are ready to make progress on all seven issues. We are already complete on six chapters, though there are some issues on the seventh, the new crossing points, and we are ready to overcome them as well,” he told television channel Kanal Sim. However, he then criticised President Nikos Christodoulides for saying he “does not want measures which would mean upgrading the TRNC”. 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He was referring to initiatives taken by the Greek Cypriot side last month to cancel international events being held by the Turkish Cypriot community, such as a children’s football camp organised by FC Barcelona and a music festival in Kyrenia. On the matter of disaster relief, he said that “hopefully, no disaster will occur either in the south or the north”, but stressed that “if something does happen, I am writing a blank cheque in advance and saying that we are ready to provide all kinds of assistance”. “We will not turn this into a diplomatic issue by making telephone calls every time an incident occurs,” he said. ‘We have no right to subject Cypriots to what we experienced in 2004 and 2017’ He then confirmed that he will meet Guterres in New York next week, before emphasising that he remains set against the idea of holding an enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem “which would yield no results”. “We have no right to subject Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots to what we experienced at the 2004 Annan plan referendum and in Crans-Montana in 2017. The secretary-general also came to our point of view, making it clear that he would not convene a fruitless five-plus-one meeting,” he said. Such a meeting, he said, will not take place “without progress on confidence-building measures, methodology and substantive issues”, with “five-plus-one” another term used to describe an enlarged meeting, which would involve the island’s two sides, its three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom, and the UN. Asked whether he remains hopeful that progress can be made, he said, “I said I am hopeful and I stand by this statement”. Christodoulides and Erhurman “My hope is not because I get along very well with Christodoulides or because we have become very close. We have made contacts in ten and a half months which could not be made in the five years before. We are able to talk,” he said. He added that after he was elected last October, “Christodoulides had said, ‘let’s start off from where we left off in Crans-Montana’, but we explained that there has been an erosion of trust for nine years, and that confidence-building measures should come first, followed by methodology, and finally, negotiations”. “Today, the UN secretary-general has also come to stand by this three-pronged approach which we pointed out. I am hopeful because we are on the right track. A solution is not only a need for Turkish Cypriots. The lack of a solution causes problems for both communities,” he said. Regarding the possible resumption of negotiations, he said that their methodology “needs to be redefined from scratch”, and said that political equality and a rotating presidency are in his view non-negotiable. ‘Political equality is not a matter of give-and-take’ “Political equality is not a matter of give-and-take which will be granted to us, it is the core of the viability of the solution. If a partnership state is to be established, you cannot write into its constitution that a Turkish Cypriot can never head that structure,” he said. He also criticised the Greek Cypriot side’s pursuit of deepening relations with the State of Israel, saying that “when the secretary-general arrived on the island, he clearly spoke about regional security risks and dangers”. “You cannot make military agreements in this environment and then talk about a favourable climate of peace,” he said. Guterres had said when he visited the island that “a solution in Cyprus is crucial, not only for the people of Cyprus themselves, but also as a factor of stability in a region which is becoming increasingly unstable”, before warning that “no solution means that Cyprus is much more vulnerable to a region which is largely in flames”.