Erhürman: I Hope Guterres’ Letter Will Serve as a Guide

In a statement on social media, Erhürman said he had received a reply to a letter sent to Guterres on August 28. In his response, the UN Secretary-General said he had carefully noted concerns about developments affecting Turkish Cypriots’ cultural, sporting, political and diplomatic activities.

Erhürman said Guterres had described such initiatives as discouraging and contrary to his calls for strengthening mutual trust. The Secretary-General had also stressed that actions undermining trust were incompatible with joint efforts, he added.

Erhürman said their aim was to implement new confidence-building measures and contribute to “creating favourable conditions for the launch of a process aimed at achieving a lasting settlement,” as Guterres had repeatedly emphasised.

Stating that the initiatives described by Guterres as “actions undermining trust” were incompatible with this objective, Erhürman said it was important to them that the UN Secretary-General shared a view they had expressed on numerous occasions.

The president said he hoped Guterres’ letter would serve as a guide for anyone who needed to assess, or wished to assess, actions that undermine trust and seek to isolate the Turkish Cypriot people in defiance of decisions previously announced by international organisations.

“We will continue our work, diplomacy and dialogue without interruption to build trust, achieve a settlement and enable our people to engage with the world,” Erhürman said.