Turkish Cypriot FM says federation on island impossible

By Murat Demirci

LEFKOSA, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

A federation in Cyprus is impossible, the Turkish Cypriot foreign minister said on Friday.

In a news conference held in Lefkosa, Tahsin Ertugruloglu said building a federation in Cyprus was just a “dream”.

“Building a federation [in Cyprus] is not possible,” he added.

The 2004 federation plan, named after then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, was accepted by Turkish Cypriots in a referendum but rejected by Greek Cypriots.

“Insisting on a federation in Cyprus is an insult to the Turkish Cypriot people,” Ertugruloglu said, adding they were fed up with “uncertainty”.

He believes that even hundred years of negotiations over a two-state federation in Cyprus will yield no results.

Cyprus was divided into a Turkish Cypriot state in the north and a Greek Cypriot administration in the south after 1974 military coup was followed by violence against the island’s Turkish people, and Turkey’s intervention as a guarantor power.

Negotiations over Cyprus resumed after a 2004 UN-backed Annan Plan to reunify the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot communities.

The reunification talks -- brokered by UN Special Cyprus Envoy Espen Barth Eide -- were launched in May 2015 to discuss a permanent settlement for the divided Mediterranean island.

The status of the island remains unresolved in spite of a series of discussions that resumed in May 2015.

There has been an on-and-off peace process over recent years, the latest failed initiative having taken place in Crans-Montana, Switzerland in July under the auspices of guarantor countries Turkey, Greece and the U.K., collapsing earlier this year.

Reporting by Murat Demirci; Writing by Cansu Dikme