The meeting of the UN Secretary-General with the leader of Turkish Cypriots at the UN headquarters in New York took place with low expectations.

The leader of Turkish Cypriots expressed the position that no common ground has yet been found for the resumption of talks on the Cyprus issue, despite the fact that the personal envoy of Antonio Guterres had contacts with both parties.

Asked if news ideas had been presented by Mr. Guterres, Tatar said that there had been some discussions about how Ms. Ogin’s mission could continue.

Asked to answer whether he would agree to meet with President Christodoulidis in the presence of the United Nations, he replied that he does not intend to get involved in negotiations, since President Christodoulidis insists on continuing the dialogue from the point at which it was interrupted in Crans Montana.

Ersin Tatar repeated the demand that the pseudo-state be recognized as an entity. At the same time, he argued that the Turkish Cypriots are suffering and their unjust, as he said, isolation policy must be stopped.

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In his statements to the correspondent of the Turkish agency “Anadolu” in Washington a few hours before the “tete-a-tete” meeting with Antonio Guterres, Ersin Tatar defiantly stated that the rules of the game in Cyprus must be changed.

He claimed that it is unrealistic to start negotiations before the equal international status of Turkish Cypriots is confirmed, stating that it is widely “accepted” that there are two peoples and two separate authorities in Cyprus.

Tatar said, in fact, that during his meeting with the head of the United Nations, he intends to set as a condition for the resumption of talks; the confirmation of the sovereign equality of Turkish Cypriots.

What they would expect from the Turkish Cypriot leader, just a few hours before his meeting with the UN Secretary General, would be a positive position regarding the resumption of negotiations, Government Spokesman, Konstantinos Letymiotis, said at CNA. The latter referred to Ersin Tatar’s statements in an interview with the English Daily Telegraph, noting that these do not contribute positively and do not project the future of the common homeland.

At the same time, he underlined that the President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulidis, will continue to make every possible effort, in cooperation with the UN Secretary-General and his Personal Envoy, to restart the negotiations and find a final solution to the Cyprus problem.

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