Erhurman: No lack of understanding with Turkey

Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on Thursday said there is no “lack of understanding” between himself and Turkey, as efforts aimed at bringing about a resumption of negotiations to solve the Cyprus problem continue. “I meet the president, the foreign minister, and all the visiting ministers. I do not feel any unhappiness, unease, or lack of understanding. As I said before the election, whatever I do regarding the Cyprus issue, I do it in coordination and consultation with the Republic of Turkey,” he told television channel Kanal Sim. He added that the question of “who is happy and who is unhappy” is a “very subjective thing”. The comment comes after unsubstantiated reports had suggested that Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan had advocated for a two-state solution to the Cyprus problem during his most recent meeting with United Nations envoy Maria Angela Holguin on Monday. Following that meeting, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a telephone call in which they discussed “the latest developments on the island of Cyprus”. High-level sources informed the Cyprus Mail last week that Erdogan has green-lit the UN’s “new initiative” aimed at bringing about a resumption of negotiations in earnest to solve the Cyprus problem. Erdogan is said to be of the view that the lack of a solution to the Cyprus problem has “unduly cost Turkey through no fault of its own” in recent decades. The sources said that Turkey’s support of both the 2004 referendum and the 2017 negotiations, both of which were rejected by the Greek Cypriot side, constitute evidence of Erdogan’s “pragmatic and constructive stance” and “will to engage in the hope of securing a solution to the Cyprus problem”. On Tuesday, Erhurman convened a meeting of Turkish Cypriot political party leaders, after which he said the next enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem, involving the island’s two sides, its three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, and the UN, must not pass without a tangible result. “It should not be a five-plus-one for just for the sake of a five-plus-one. It should be a five-plus-one so that results are achieved,” he said after the meeting. He added that “the rational path in Cyprus and the region is a lasting solution, lasting peace, and lasting stability”, and that “this can only be achieved through diplomacy and dialogue”. On this matter, he stressed that “this time, it must be different”, following the failure of the most recent round of negotiations to solve the Cyprus problem in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana in 2017. Holguin said last week that she expects the next enlarged meeting to take place either in late July or early August.