Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told British Prime Minister Andy Burnham that any solution to the Cyprus problem must guarantee the “equal international status” of the Turkish Cypriots, when the pair met on the sidelines of the United Nations general assembly in New York, according to the Turkish presidential communications directorate.
“President Erdogan … stated that no formula which fails to recognise the sovereign equality and equal international status of the Turkish Cypriot people will yield results,” it said.
Away from the matter of Cyprus, Erdogan also said that “relations between Turkey and the United Kingdom are strengthening in every field”, and was said to have “expressed belief that cooperation will be advanced further through steps to be taken in various areas”.
These areas, he said, include “the defence industry and trade”.
In addition the pair discussed the Middle East, with Erdogan saying that “Israel has repeatedly demonstrated through its actions that it does not desire peace in Gaza or the West Bank”, and stressing “the importance of international community pressure”.
He also touched on “rising tensions regarding Iran and Ukraine”, and said that negotiation processes aimed at ending both wars “could be revived if an agreement is reached concerning the Strait of Hormuz”.
On Ukraine, he said that “a stalemate prevails”, before adding that “the targeting of Turkish and foreign commercial vessels in the Black Sea further complicates the situation”.
Erdogan’s statements to Burnham largely resemble what he said during his address to the general assembly on Tuesday, when he said that “the sovereign equality and equal international status of the Turkish Cypriot people” must be recognised.
‘The inhumane isolation to which the Turkish Cypriots have been subjected must finally come to an end’
“I call upon the international community to recognise and establish political, diplomatic, and economic relations with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,” he said, before adding that “the inhumane isolation to which [the Turkish Cypriots] have been subjected must finally come to an end”.
His meeting with Burnham comes amid heightened diplomatic traffic on the Cyprus problem in New York. He met UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier in the day, with Burnham also having met Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides.
Later this week, Christodoulides is also expected to meet Guterres, while Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman will also meet both Holguin and Guterres.
However, despite the ongoing diplomatic traffic, there has been no concrete progress made on the Cyprus problem since Guterres visited the island in July.
Then, he had promised to hold an enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem on the Cyprus problem, involving the island’s two sides, its three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, and the UN, “after adequate progress” is achieved on confidence-building measures, the meeting’s methodology and the substance of the talks.
Christodoulides and Erhurman have met on three separate occasions since July, but no concrete progress has been achieved in that time, with the sides still in open disagreement over the meaning of political equality, crossing points, and the methodology of the talks.
In addition, throughout the summer, initiatives had been taken by the Greek Cypriot side to cancel international events being held by the Turkish Cypriot community, including a children’s football camp organised by FC Barcelona and a music festival in Kyrenia.
This prompted Erhurman to warn that such initiatives “undermine trust” between the island’s two sides, stressing last week that “if we wish to move the process forward, it is crucial to create the ‘conducive climate’ mentioned by Guterres”.
Christodoulides hints at ‘behind-the-scenes’ meetings
Nonetheless, Christodoulides on Monday said that “behind-the-scenes” meetings in New York this week may hold the key to developments occurring on the Cyprus problem.
“What I can tell you is that I did indeed mention that we are not ruling out positive developments, because, from the moment we arrived here, we have observed numerous meetings, which I would characterise as behind the scenes, or out of the public eye,” he said.
Those meetings, he said, are “aimed at creating the conditions this week, with all involved parties present in New York, for positive developments to occur”.
Erhurman, meanwhile, stressed that the Turkish Cypriot side is seeking “a five-plus-one meeting where success is guaranteed in advance through preparatory meetings in Nicosia and negotiations which, in line with our people’s will for a solution, will actually lead us to a resolution this time”, with “five-plus-one” another term for an enlarged meeting.
He said that his stance on the prospect of holding such a meeting “echoes the secretary-general’s statements, expressed both after Crans-Montana – that ‘this time must be different’ – and at his recent press conference – that ‘the mistakes of the past must not be repeated’”.
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