After the United Nations' latest and somewhat halfhearted attempt to tackle the ethnic divide in the island of Cyprus, Turkish Cypriot President Ersin Tatar has lamented a continued "reluctance" of the Greek Cypriots and their backers to a solution based on "equal sovereignty and international recognition."
"The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) will certainly never return to the negotiating table without the other side and the U.N. confirming our international status and equal sovereignty because that's what matters to us and Türkiye," Tatar told Daily Sabah in an exclusive interview during a visit to Turkuvaz Media headquarters in Istanbul.
María Ángela Holguín Cuellar, the U.N. chief's new personal envoy for Cyprus, met with Tatar and Greek Cypriot administration leader Nikos Christodoulides late last month, where she expressed commitment to facilitating common ground between the sides after years of complete stalemate.
She also contacted women's organizations and other civil society groups for a firsthand assessment to gauge whether conditions have ripened for a resumption of full-fledged peace talks.
Tatar said Cuellar "may come and go, but if there's no common ground, it's impossible for the TRNC to accept negotiations that would be for naught because any current offer would be another game they would play to make the Turkish side accept the 'sovereignty' of Greeks.'"
"We have expressed that we would not accept such a thing as part of our new political stance, which has been decisive for the past three years," the Turkish Cypriot president said.
The island of Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Türkiye, as a guarantor power, prompted by a coup aimed at Greece's annexation of the island, launched a military intervention dubbed the Cyprus Peace Operation to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence.
As a result, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) was founded on Nov. 15, 1983.
Since then, the violence has stopped, but tensions continue, including over who holds sway on the island's exclusive offshore economic zone, over 40% of which was claimed by Türkiye following recent natural gas discoveries.
Türkiye doesn't recognize the Greek Cypriot administration as a state and still keeps some 35,000 troops in the TRNC.
The island has recently seen an on-and-off peace process, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Türkiye, Greece and the United Kingdom.
The Greek Cypriot administration was admitted to the European Union in 2004, the same year they thwarted a U.N. plan to end the longstanding dispute, but only the Greek Cypriot south enjoys its full benefits.
A Cyprus peace deal would reduce a source of potential conflict next door to an unstable Middle East and allow for the easier harnessing of hydrocarbon reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea's natural gas-rich waters where Türkiye has a drillship probing the seabed.
But Cuellar faces a herculean task as Turkish and Greek Cypriots have grown increasingly apart in the years since the last major push to reach a peace settlement in the summer of 2017.
Türkiye and the Turkish Cypriots say the only way to peace now is a two-state deal, as opposed to reunifying the island as a federation composed of Greek and Turkish Cypriot zones.
Despite rejecting a deal on a federation previously, the majority of Greek Cypriots also reject anything that would formalize a partition, as well as demands for a Turkish Cypriot veto on all federal-level government decisions, permanent Turkish troop presence and Turkish military intervention rights.
Tatar said he sensed "no positive signs" in talks with either Cuellar or his Greek Cypriot counterpart that such common ground is possible.
He accused the Greek Cypriot administration of "insisting on the terms of the 2017 negotiations" and argued, "Picking up where we left off then would nullify everything we've been doing for the past three years because we have changed the rules of the game."
He said the TRNC's sensitivity on the issue was well known and that his government would not consent to the U.N. envoy's "attempts to restart talks by meeting with us or certain nongovernmental organizations" without recognizing this sensitivity.
Citing a long history of the Greek side sabotaging negotiations – twice in the past two decades – Tatar slammed an injustice prevailing over good faith in peace efforts and a "pressure" exerted by the Greek side and its guarantors to revive talks on their terms.
"We have been through this many times in the past," Tatar said, particularly underscoring the Annan Plan to unify the island, which the majority of the TRNC population supported but was rejected by the Greek Cypriot administration.
In contrast, Tatar touted the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee between the sides and guarantors Türkiye, Greece and Britain, which determined the status of Turkish and Greek Cypriots and ratified the Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus.
The treaty allowed Britain to retain sovereignty over two military bases – Akrotiri and Dhekelia – and granted the guarantors the right to take action to reestablish the current state of affairs in Cyprus, which Türkiye utilized in 1974.
The deal only lasted for three years, up to 1963, when Greek Cypriots began to attack Turkish Cypriot enclaves at the onset of the coup, which Tatar pointed out as the Greek side's "intolerance and reluctance to administer Cyprus with Turkish Cypriots because they feel they're the true owners of the island."
"They again insisted on no guarantees and no Turkish soldiers in Cyprus when U.N. brokered talks in Crans-Montana in 2017," Tatar recalled.
"The removal of Turkish military from Cyprus would mean Türkiye's withdrawal from the East Mediterranean, which would be a major loss for Türkiye," Tatar said.
He further defined the Cyprus question as a struggle for the existence of Turkish Cyprus, the opposite of which would mean surrendering the nation's rights and effectively terminating its existence, leaving Cyprus to become a Greek island in the East Mediterranean.
"TRNC may not be currently recognized, but its existence is a reality," Tatar said. "We either continue as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, or we surrender our rights and fade out of existence."
He expressed gratitude for Türkiye's support, reaffirming the "new politics" of TRNC regarding the Cyprus question. He also emphasized the significance of gradual improvement in cultivating international "acceptance," citing the inflow of international students, foreign trade and investors to the north, as well as the welcome TRNC receives at the Organization of Turkic States (OTS).
"The international community is slowly recognizing there are two peoples, two states in Cyprus for the past 60 years and as Turkish Cyprus prepares to celebrate its 50th foundational anniversary, it's not so easy to return after this point," Tatar noted.
As for the possible impact of the recent rapprochement between Türkiye and Greece on TRNC's relations with the Greek Cypriot administration, Tatar argued the focus should be on the latter "for once."
"Why won't Greece warn Greek Cypriots against discording with Turkish Cyprus since its relations with Türkiye too are being harmed and their stubbornness is costing them a lot?" he said.
Pointing out a recently increasing sentiment among some Greek politicians that the Cyprus problem should soon be laid to rest, Tatar called Athens to push the Greek Cypriot administration to "abandon its persistence and make peace with TRNC on a two-state basis."
Markedly on the path to international recognition, in 2022 the TRNC was granted observer status in the OTS, a group of prominent Turkic nations working together for political solidarity and economic cooperation, including Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has since extended many invitations to the TRNC, including for the 11th leaders' summit scheduled for July in Shusha, which Tatar described as a "feat in and of itself."
Accusing the Greek Cypriot administration of "trying to push the EU to pressure us so we won't have contact with any international institutions," Tatar condemned their "so-called sense of democracy."
He thanked Aliyev's "full support" and emphasized cooperation and solidarity among Turkic states.
As for allegations that thousands of Israeli and Jewish people were buying properties in Turkish Cyprus, which has a population of about 380,000, Tatar said the numbers were vastly inflated and that the rumors were not true. He assured that the "necessary regulations" would soon be implemented against these sales.
