Turkish Cypriot president highlights sovereign equality for solution of Cyprus issue

Official negotiations on the Cyrpus issue can only commence if talks are based on establishing a system of sovereign equality, the president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) said Wednesday.

Ersin Tatar stressed that the 5+1 informal meeting on Cyprus held under U.N. auspices is expected to take place in late February or early March, dependant on COVID-19 developments.

Noting that over 50 years of talks on the Cyprus issue have so far yielded no results, Tatar said the negotiations over a federation have been exhausted.

"Our addressee in the 5+1 conference is the U.N. The U.N. participates in these meetings within the framework of goodwill missions. If technical information is requested, this information can be requested from the EU, but the EU is not a party to these meetings. It should not be," Tatar said.

On the issue of COVID-19 vaccinations from the EU, the president underlined that the TRNC had asked the U.N. to create the necessary grounds, adding that their address had been directed at the EU, not the Greek Cypriot administration.

Tatar said they have attempted to form bi-communal technical committees consisting of Turkish and Greek Cypriots to work on the vaccination issue.

He emphasized that the TRNC would not accept the vaccines delivered through the Greek administration, as suggested in a report to the TRNC by the relevant technical committee, and that the vaccines should be provided directly by the EU.

The island of Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when a Greek Cypriot coup was followed by violence against the island's Turks and Turkey's intervention as a guarantor power.

It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Turkey, Greece and the U.K. The TRNC was founded in 1983.