IKV Chairperson Dr. Ayhan Zeytinoğlu issued a statement following the meetings held by UN Secretary-General António Guterres in Cyprus. Dr. Zeytinoğlu welcomed the UN Secretary-General’s efforts to enhance cooperation between the two sides on the island but stated that pursuing a settlement within the UN framework is not the right approach. He emphasized that there is no sufficient common ground for a solution and that revisiting proposals that have already been tried and proven unsuccessful would only result in a waste of time.

“Following his meetings with the leaders on the island, UN Secretary-General António Guterres held a press conference and made important statements. Guterres announced that he had obtained the consent of both sides and the guarantor states to proceed with a ‘Five-plus-One’ meeting, while stressing that procedural and substantive preparations, as well as confidence-building measures, would be required beforehand. He also underlined the importance of reaching a settlement in Cyprus for peace and stability.

Despite Secretary-General Guterres’s constructive intentions, it is evident that the necessary conditions for an UN-framework settlement do not currently exist on the island. The Greek Cypriot Administration continues to maintain its longstanding position, which denies the realities on the ground and disregards the rights of the Turkish Cypriot people. Backed by the European Union, the Greek Cypriot side continues to use the EU card to pursue its unilateral approach. There has been no change in the stance of the Greek Cypriot Administration, which rejected the Annan Plan in 2004 and was responsible for the collapse of the Crans-Montana negotiations in 2017.

Any settlement proposal that fails to recognize the sovereign equality and equal international status of the Turkish Cypriot people is unacceptable. Moreover, framing the search for a solution solely in terms of the need for peace overlooks the fact that peace on the island has in reality been maintained through the existence of the TRNC and Türkiye’s security guarantee. The most reasonable course of action is to lift the international isolation imposed on the TRNC and to recognize it on the basis of the principle of sovereign equality.

The injustices suffered by the Turkish Cypriot people—including the exclusion of the TRNC from the European Union and the continuation of international isolation despite the Turkish Cypriot community’s approval of the Annan Plan in the 2004 referendum—cannot be remedied through open-ended processes or by reviving outdated settlement proposals. They can only be addressed through the recognition of sovereign equality and international recognition.”