Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in northern Cyprus on Saturday marking 50 years since Turkish forces invaded, said he sees no point in continuing UN-led negotiations on the divided island’s future.
“We believe that a federal solution is not possible in Cyprus. It is of no benefit to anyone to say let’s continue negotiations where we left off in Switzerland years ago,” he said in the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).
Decades of United Nations-backed talks have failed to reunify the island. The last round of peace talks, in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, collapsed in 2017.
Greek Cypriots in the internationally recognised south of the island in 2004 overwhelmingly rejected a UN-backed reunification plan in a referendum.
“The Turkish Cypriot side should sit at the table as equals with the Greek Cypriot side. We are ready to negotiate and achieve lasting peace and a solution,” said Erdogan, whose country is the only one that recognises the TRNC.
