Tatar’s four proposals welcomed by Töre

He said that the Greek Cypriot side needed to evaluate the proposals, even if it would not consider accepting them.

President Tatar on Friday had presented his proposals through the UN’s Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Asia, and the Americas Miroslav Jenča for future cooperation of two states under four pillars, concerning shared hydrocarbons exploration, electricity interconnector with the EU through Türkiye, joint solar energy projects and shared use of the island’s water resources.

Speaking to BRT on Sunday, the Speaker of the TRNC Parliament Zorlu Töre said the four proposals tabled by President Ersin Tatar were very important.

“The Greek Cypriot side will most likely reject these proposals but, should at least evaluate these proposals based on a win-win principle,” he said, adding that it was important to start from somewhere.

Töre said that even accepting one of the four proposals would contribute significantly to building trust and confidence between the two sides.

Commenting on the energy proposal, the parliamentary speaker said that the Greek Cypriot side would most likely perceive the offer to interconnect the island’s electricity grids to Europe via Türkiye as an attempt by Ankara to extend its sovereignty over the island.

“Such a perception would be wrong as the whole world is interconnected one way or the other,” he said.

Töre said that the current cooperation on sharing electricity between the sides could also be extended to other areas.

“In any case the TRNC and Türkiye need to enhance their management of water resources and solar energy production with or without cooperation with the Greek Cypriots,” he added.