Under the title “A wary optimism”,

Turkish Cypriot daily Kibris (27.10.11) reports that Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu’s special adviser Kudret Ozersay, evaluating the upcoming meeting in New York, said that they are going to the New York meeting with high hopes of better result than the previous meeting in Geneva. He added that the New York summit will not be an ordinary tripartite meeting.

Ozersay explained that they have undergone a very intensive period of preparation ahead of the meeting, adding that specialists on issues such as Property, European Union, Governance and Power sharing and other issues will accompany them to New York.

Ozersay claimed that the Turkish Cypriot side made an important opening in Geneva by accepting to discuss the chapter of territorial adjustments and the discussion of the map and the numbers at the last stage.

Claiming that the Turkish Cypriot side put forward various and creative proposals for every chapter, Ozersay argued that the Turkish Cypriot side’s proposals forced its interlocutors to conduct a give-and-take process and as a result of this progress, which cannot be underestimated, has been made.

Ozersay said that they have good reasons to be hopeful for the outcome of the New York summit, adding that one of their targets is to go to New York with a firm strategy, which is to free the Turkish Cypriots from the current uncertainty. He also argued that from this point of view, the New York meeting is more important than it is thought to be.

Noting that although the ongoing Cyprus talks are a “Cypriot-led process”, the Cyprus problem possesses also the qualification of an international controversy, Ozersay claimed: “This issue does not end only with Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots, but it is a reality that other territorial and international actors need to be taken into consideration, even if we like it or not.”