Erhurman meets Ustel amid Cyprus problem rift
Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on Monday met the north’s ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel, with the latter in open revolt over the former’s stance on the Cyprus problem.
Erhurman’s office said only that an “exchange of views” between the pair had taken place at his official residence in the northern sector of the Nicosia suburb of Ayios Dhometios, and that he would continue to meet Ustel in his capacity as ‘prime minister’ every 15 days.
However, the meeting comes after Ustel had on Sunday launched an attack on President Nikos Christodoulides and doubled down on his own position that the Cyprus problem can only be solved via a two-state solution – a departure from the bizonal, bicommunal, federal model ostensibly favoured by both Erhurman and Christodoulides.
“The statements that ‘referencing United Nations resolutions determines the form of solution’ and ‘you cannot approach it a la carte’ are a clear admission that no solution option other than a federation will be accepted. This approach rejects a solution based on two sovereign states from the outset and aims to impose a unilateral model on the Turkish Cypriot people,” Ustel had said on Sunday.
He had added that his position is “clear, unambiguous, and indisputable”, and said that “this is the position that the motherland, the Republic of Turkey, and the president of the Republic of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have repeatedly, loudly, and resolutely stated”.
“A just, lasting, and realistic solution in Cyprus is only possible on the basis of two sovereign states. This view is neither temporary nor tactical. This stance is an expression of a historical and legitimate will, stemming from the Turkish Cypriot people’s fight for existence,” he said.
Those comments came after Ustel had been outwardly unimpressed before Christmas after Erhurman had convened Turkish Cypriot political party leaders in the aftermath of his tripartite meeting with Christodoulides and UN envoy Maria Angela Holguin.
He had said at the time that the views of his political party, the UBP, “are clear” and that “we have conveyed this” to Erhurman.
“We will not discuss the Cyprus problem without two sovereign, equal states and equal international status,” he said, before saying that he had felt “discomfort” at the wording of the UN’s statement following the tripartite meeting.
The statement’s explicit reference to “political equality”, he said, “has been interpreted as referring to a federation”.
Erhurman had after that meeting said that an enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem, which would bring together the island’s two sides, its three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, and the UN, “should not be held without prior agreements on certain issues in Nicosia”.
With Holguin set to arrive on the island next month, he said it would be “more appropriate” for an enlarged meeting to be held after her visit to the island, “if concrete progress is made during these contacts”.
Those four points, sometimes referred to as “preconditions” – a term Erhurman resents – foresee that the Greek Cypriot side accept political equality, time-limit negotiations, and preserve all past agreements, and that the UN guarantee that embargoes placed on the Turkish Cypriots be lifted if the Greek Cypriot side leaves the negotiating table again.
“There is agreement on half of the first article. That is, on political equality. However, it is not possible to move onto the second point before the first point is completed. We are halfway through the first point of the four-point methodology. We are at the point of political equality,” he said.
As such, he added, the island’s two sides “have not reached any conclusions regarding the solution model”.
“The solution model, as we call it, is the essence of the matter. We have made it clear repeatedly throughout this process that we will not discuss the substance until the methodology is complete. There is no consensus regarding the solution model,” he said.