Journalist tells Turkish FM Çavuşoğlu to waive citizenship to feel Turkish-Cypriot struggle
A Turkish Cypriot journalist who favors a federal model for the island has advised Turkish Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu to renounce his Turkish citizenship and become a citizen of Turkish Cyprus in order to “personally experience the difficulties that Turkish Cypriot citizens are going through.” Journalist Sami Özuslu's comments came after Çavuşoğlu said that Ankara no longer considers the “federation project” for the reunification of Cyprus as a “sustainable” plan.
Nikolaos Stelya / DUVAR
The Turkish Cypriot leftist opposition has slammed Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu after the latter said that the United Nations-sponsored initiatives based on a federal model for Cyprus have turned futile and that Turkey wants a two-state solution for the island.
A Turkish Cypriot journalist who favors a federal model for the island advised Çavuşoğlu to renounce his Turkish citizenship and become a citizen of Turkish Cyprus in order to “personally experience the difficulties that Turkish Cypriot citizens are going through.”
“I here call on Turkish FM Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu to become a citizen of Turkish Cyprus. But on one condition. He will renounce his Turkish citizenship. From here onwards, he will content himself with just Turkish Cypriot citizenship. He should personally experience the difficulties that Turkish Cypriot citizens are going through,” Sami Özuslu wrote in his column on Dec. 17
“When he [Çavuşoğlu] goes somewhere, he should then face several visa problems. He should experience life in Turkish Cyprus conditions. If he is talking on behalf of Turkish Cypriots, if he is demanding 'two separate states,' then he will accept to live 'like us.' Let him come here and then he can speak as he wishes!” Özuslu wrote.
The journalist's comments came after Çavuşoğlu met with UN special envoy Jane Holl Lute on Dec. 16. The Turkish minister posted a picture of himself together with Lute on Twitter and wrote: “We told UN's Cyprus senior executive Jane Holl Lute that the federation project is no longer sustainable.”
“The Turkish side promotes two-state settlement based on equal sovereignty. A common ground should be reached for a new negotiation process,” Çavuşoğlu also wrote.
Another Turkish Cypriot journalist that does not agree with Ankara's stance on the Cyprus issue is Hasan Yıkıcı. According to Yıkıcı, the reason why the “federation project” seems problematic is due to the way that the UN handles it.
Cyprus was split after a Turkish invasion in 1974 triggered by a brief coup engineered by the military then ruling Greece. The EU admitted the island into the bloc in 2004, represented internationally by its Greek Cypriot government which effectively controls only its south. Its north is a breakaway Turkish Cypriot state.
The latest attempt at reunification between the two Cypriot sides collapsed in disarray in mid-2017. Each Cypriot side blames the other for the collapse.