Vision for a Two-State Solution

Our new vision, tabled at the 5+UN informal meeting in Geneva in April 2021, was, in fact, in line with the UN Secretary-General’s calls on the two Sides to “think outside the box” and that “this time must be different”, and aimed at breaking the deadlock in the decades-long negotiations conducted on the same basis and modalities.

The essence of our new proposal is to secure the inherent sovereign equality and equal international status of the State of the Turkish Cypriot people. This will be achieved through a new basis that will be brought about for the parties to embark on formal negotiations to set up a freely negotiated and mutually acceptable cooperative relationship.

The rationale behind our proposal is embedded in reality. The reality being that the usurpation of the partnership “Republic of Cyprus” and the expulsion of Turkish Cypriot people from all organs of the partnership state by the Greek Cypriots, resulted in, out of necessity, the culmination of the legislative, executive and judiciary of the Turkish Cypriot Side into the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and the presence of two States on the island that are each governed by their respective peoples.

Furthermore, experience in the past negotiations undoubtedly suggests that establishing an equilibrium between the two Sides, prior to starting formal negotiations, not only at the negotiation table, but also outside of it, is a prerequisite. Only if common ground is found between the two Sides, time-bound, results-oriented formal negotiations on a new basis can start.

The Turkish Cypriot proposal entails the following elements:

    1. The Secretary-General should take an initiative so that the Security Council adopts a resolution in which the sovereign equality and equal international status of the two Sides is acknowledged. Such a resolution will form the new basis for the establishment of a cooperative relationship between the two existing States.
    2. Once the sovereign equality and equal international status of the two Sides is secured through the above-mentioned arrangement, the Sides will enter into results-oriented, time-framed negotiations, on this new basis, under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General to establish a freely-reached and mutually acceptable cooperative agreement.
    3. The negotiations will focus on the future relationship between the two independent States, as well as the issues of property, security and border adjustments, and relations with the EU.
    4. The negotiations will be supported by Türkiye, Greece and the UK, as well as, where appropriate, the EU as observer.
    5. In the context of any agreement, the two States will mutually recognize each other; the three Guarantor States will support this.
    6. Any agreement to be reached as a result of these negotiations will be submitted for approval in separate simultaneous referenda in the two States.

At the end of the informal 5+UN meeting, the UN Secretary-General stated that “we have not yet found enough common grounds to allow for the resumption of formal negotiations in relation to the settlement of the Cyprus problem”.

Reasons Behind the Failure of “Bi-communal, bi-zonal Federation” Model

Due to the following facts, efforts towards reaching a “bi-communal, bi-zonal federal settlement based on political equality” have failed:

  • Unjust treatment of the Greek Cypriot Side by international community as the so-called “Government of the Republic of Cyprus”, thus leaving no motivation for the Greek Cypriot Side to share power and prosperity with the Turkish Cypriot Side. No conditionality or repercussions attached by the international community to the unilateral initiatives of the Greek Cypriot Side.
  • Lack of confidence between the two Sides, a principle which is most needed in federal structures.
  • No meaningful cooperation between the two Sides on an official level.
  • Greek Cypriot Side’s insistence on the perpetuation of the isolation of the Turkish Cypriot people.
  • The Greek Cypriot Side’s attempts to conceal the atrocities it perpetrated against the Turkish Cypriot people between 1963-74 and its myth that the Cyprus problem emerged in 1974.
  • The Greek Cypriot/Greek mentality that Cyprus is an integral part of Hellenism. Former Greek Cypriot leader Anastasiades is on record stating “the island has always been Hellenistic.”

Within this context, it should be borne in mind that the status quo on the island is a result of the unequal treatment the international community has afforded to the two Sides on the island. In other words, the Cyprus problem is a problem of status. The two Sides will never be in a position to reach an agreement so long as the international community continues to recognize the Greek Cypriot Administration as the only legitimate authority on the island, whereby merely attributing the status of a “community” to the Turkish Cypriot Side.

Source: https://mfa.gov.ct.tr/cyprus-negotiation-process/our-vision-for-two-state-solution/