Discussing a potential federal solution to the Cyprus problem constitutes a betrayal, Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar said on Friday.
Speaking at an event to mark the 19th anniversary of the death of Turkish commander Kenan Coygun, who served in Cyprus in the 1960s, he insisted on a two-state solution.
He criticised various “agreements made by the Greek Cypriots on behalf of the whole of Cyprus while ignoring the Turkish Cypriots’ rights”, and also warned that a federal solution “would mean the majority governing the minority”.
He stressed “the importance of an independent Turkic state in the Eastern Mediterranean”, and said the north is “gaining ground everywhere with its friends and allies” both in the Organisation of Turkic States and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
“There are two states, two peoples, two democracies in Cyprus. From now on, leaving to chance our great struggle for independence and freedom would be a great betrayal,” he said.
He then took aim at opposition party the CTP, who had sent their leader Tufan Erhurman and their foreign relations secretary Fikri Toros to New York for meetings on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in September.
The CTP, Erhurman and Toros are advocates of a federal solution to the Cyprus problem, and Toros had made no secret of the fact that the trip was an opportunity for the party to present Erhurman as an alternative, pro-reunification Turkish Cypriot leader to Tatar, with just over a year to go until the next election.
Tatar fired back on Friday, saying, “I was elected president of this country. They do not represent the Turkish Cypriot people. Those who are continuing talks for a federation are making a big mistake. This is a betrayal.”
