ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dismissed Wednesday’s discussion of a federal system to reunify Cyprus, insisting that a two-state agreement is the only solution for the ethnically divided island.
In a speech to lawmakers in his ruling party, Erdogan also attacked Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, accusing him of being a confrontation and interrupting the recently resumed Greco-Turkish negotiations with the aim of reducing tensions between the two neighbors.
“There is no way out for Cyprus other than the two-state solution,” said Erdogan in reference to a peace agreement that would be negotiated between two equal sovereign states. “Whether you accept it or not, there can no longer be a federation.”
Erdogan said: “There is no point in discussing old solution formulas … that disregarded the Turkish people on the island and condemned the negotiations to failure for 50 years. This business is over now. “
His statement was made at a time when UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is expected to convene a meeting next month that will bring together Greek and Turkish Cypriot rivals, as well as Cyprus “guarantors” – Greece, Turkey and Britain. – to assess the chances of resuming negotiations to reunify the island.
The island has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded after a coup with the aim of unifying the island with Greece. Only Turkey recognizes a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence in the northern third of the island.
Turkey and dissident Turkish Cypriots say that a solution that envisages a federation consisting of Greek and Turkish-speaking zones has been tried countless times in the past five decades and has resulted in the failure of what they say is the Greek Cypriots’ reluctance to share power with the Turkish Cypriots.
Greek Cypriots strongly reject any agreement that legitimizes the ethnic division of the island nation of the Eastern Mediterranean.
Mitsotakis, who visited Cyprus earlier this week, said Greece’s priority was to end Turkish occupation in Cyprus and that Turkey and Turkish Cypriot insistence on a two-state solution was “unrealistic”.
Erdogan said Mitsotakis should “know his place”.
“If they are looking for peace, they must not challenge me,” said Erdogan. “If you don’t know your place, it means you’re kicking the negotiating table.”
Last month, officials from Greece and Turkey held their first meeting in five years in Istanbul, after a year in which the two NATO members came to the brink of conflict in the eastern Mediterranean.