Ertuğruloğlu responds to Kasulides

Ertuğruloğlu was responding to the Greek Cypriot foreign minister Yannis Kasulides’ latest statement on the fenced-off town of Maraş.

In a written statement issued on Sunday, Foreign Minister Tahsin Ertuğruoğlu said that the Greek Cypriot foreign minister had openly revealed the Greek Cypriot leadership’s intention to take control over the TRNC during an address at an event related to Maraş.

He added that the Greek Cypriot leadership’s policy which aimed to bring the Turkish Cypriot people under its tyranny led to the failure of efforts to reach a “bizonal, bicommunal federal settlement on the basis of political equality”.

“This policy is the product of a crippled mentality that we as Turkish Cypriots can only exist as a “minority” on this island. Kasulides who despite being accepted as a “moderate” politician like other members of the Greek Cypriot political elite sees the solution of the Cyprus Problem as the continuation of the Greek Cypriot state and the abolishment of the TRNC,” Ertuğruloğlu said.

He warned that the federal solution model which the UN Security Council was trying to impose on the sides was a tool for achieving that goal.

The TRNC foreign minister said the Greek Cypriot foreign minister, as is the case with his colleagues, had made it his duty to try and provoke the democratically elected representatives of the Turkish Cypriot people against the motherland Türkiye.

“Such attempts show how distant the Greek Cypriot side is in understanding the unbreakable bond between the Turkish Cypriot people and the great Turkish nation,” he added.

Ertuğruloğlu pointed out that the confidence-building measures (CBMs) that Kasulides touched upon were aimed at spreading Greek Cypriot sovereignty over the TRNC.

“On the other hand, the Turkish Cypriot side’s proposals for cooperation between two equally sovereign states are constructive proposals which will benefit both peoples on the island. As is the case in other states, the TRNC makes and executes its decisions concerning matters of state and its people, he said.

Foreign Minister Ertuğruloğlu said that the Greek Cypriot officials must understand that the TRNC government is the sole authority on matters concerning the state and that it is their only interlocutor.

He concluded his statement by pointing out that accepting the Turkish Cypriot side’s sovereign equality and equal international status was the only way to move forward.