Turkish Cypriot daily Kibris newspaper (25.10.16) reports that Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, speaking after the three hour long meeting yesterday with President Anastasiades, said that they want their meeting in Geneva in November to be held in a format that will contribute to the target “solution in 2016” and this should lead the leaders step by step directly towards the solution.
Akinci said that the effective participation of the sides at the federal structure is important, adding that the decisions cannot be passed with a simple majority. He noted that during the meeting, the two sides submitted their views on the five topics that they had already worked before at the negotiations, but it was not an intensive work.
Stressing that he tried to explain in one of the previous meetings how important and what does the “effective participation to decision-making processes” means, Akinci explained that this does not mean only the participation in a certain committee or the representation in a certain administration council. He added: “Let’s assume that there is a 6 to 3 ratio?then one out of three persons will have to vote in favour of that decision. This is an issue which makes up the very essence of a federation and we have yet to reach agreement on this issue. From this point, the topic has serious difficulties”. Akinci further said that it is out of the question for even a simple decision to be passed with simple majority as things are in a unitary state, adding that the Turkish Cypriot side is very sensitive on this issue.
Referring on the issue of security and guarantees, Akinci argued: “The Greek Cypriot side is out rightly rejecting the Turkish Cypriot side’s demands on the issue of guarantees and security. Their categorical objection on this issue is wrong. A number of the Turkish Cypriot peoples’ demands stem from past experiences. They are stating that future experiences too can lead to different developments”. He further said: “What I mean is that our past experiences show us how much the status in the future needs to be protected. Because more than once, this status was demolished. We lived this in 1960’s and on the coup in 1974. The issue in all these was the elimination of the status of the Turkish Cypriots stemming from the 1960 Constitution. This was the aim. For this reason, I want to stress how much a deterrent element is needed on these issues, because those experiences showed us that the rejection front in the Greek Cypriot side is objecting the bicommunal federal concept as a principle”.
Akinci further said: “We have seen how much the status in the future needs to be protected which is why the Turkish Cypriot people are insisting so much on Turkey’s guarantees. This could be reassessed when the place and time comes but that will be determined by what will be experienced in the future.”
(DPs)
