Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on Sunday said that United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had told him that initiatives undertaken by the Greek Cypriot side to bring about the cancellation of international events organised by the Turkish Cypriots over the course of the summer were “discouraging”.
He said he had received a reply to the letter he had penned to Guterres in August about the matter, and that in that reply, Guterres had “emphasised that such developments are discouraging and contradict his repeated calls for initiatives to strengthen mutual trust” between the island’s two sides.
“Guterres stated that he carefully noted the concerns regarding developments affecting the cultural, sporting, political, and diplomatic activities of the Turkish Cypriots, adding that these initiatives contradict efforts to strengthen mutual trust,” Erhurman said.
He added that Guterres had “emphasised the importance of prioritising the implementation of confidence-building measures and stated that he had asked his envoy [Maria Angela Holguin] to continue working with both sides on the implementation of these issues”.
“Guterres also noted that he requested all relevant actors to reiterate that actions which hinder confidence-building measures, including the cancellations of events, are counterproductive to joint efforts,” he said.
Erhurman had sent letters both to the European Union and to the United Nations on August 28 a children’s football camp organised by FC Barcelona and a music festival in Kyrenia, having said in August on the matter of the festival that “Greek Cypriot diplomacy has been conducting a campaign for some time.”
“The summary is this: ‘lifting or easing the isolation of the Turkish Cypriots will eliminate their desire for a solution’ and ‘introducing new confidence-building measures will make the status quo comfortable’,” he said.
‘The sadness which a Greek Cypriot young person may experience … cannot be my joy’
Later, he said that “I do not want any Turkish Cypriot or Greek Cypriot person to be deprived of the opportunities which young people in other countries have because of the Cyprus problem”.
“The sadness which a Greek Cypriot young person may experience for such a reason cannot be my joy. As a human being, I cannot accept that the sadness which a Turkish Cypriot young person may experience for this reason should produce joy for any Greek Cypriot,” he said.
He later added that “cancelling a festival, attempting to prevent children from playing football, is, from my perspective, not a diplomatic victory, but is clearly a defeat for all people and humanity as a whole”.
However, government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis took the opposite view, responding to a question on the matter asked by the Cyprus Mail by saying that “we are doing exactly what an internationally recognised state should do”.
Additionally, he insisted that the Republic of Cyprus was not “exerting pressure” on international organisations to bring about the cancellation of events, saying that “it is with diplomacy that we are operating, and what we are doing is to clearly present the real state of affairs”.