President Ersin Tatar on Tuesday said that the Turkish Cypriot side’s position was clear, that there can be no resumption of talks until the sovereignty equality of the Turkish Cypriot people is recognized.

Speaking after his two-hour meeting with the UN Secretary-General’s new Personal Envoy Angela Maria Holguin, President Ersin Tatar reiterated his position that there are two states in Cyprus and to find common ground, “the sovereign equality of Turkish Cypriots must be accepted”.

He said he told Holguin about the hardships and attacks Turkish Cypriots endured between 1963 and 1974, saying that “true peace came to the island on July 20”.

According to Tatar, efforts for a solution based on a federation are futile, as “if our sovereign equality and equal international status is not accepted, it is not possible to sit at the negotiating table”.

Holguin’s duty, he said, is to establish whether there is common ground or not in Cyprus.

“Of course, we and Türkiye want an agreement,” he said. “After all, the Eastern Mediterranean is one of the most important regions of the world. There is natural wealth here, there is natural gas, there is oil, and there are security issues.

“We live in an important area and Türkiye is only 60km from here, while Greece is 1,000 km away and the EU is thousands of kilometres away,” he said.

Asked whether Holguin will have a new meeting with Christodoulides, or a joint one with him, Tatar shot down such a possibility, saying that it would give the impression he intended to resume negotiations where they stopped in Crans Montana.“[This is] an impression that Mr Christodoulides is constantly trying to create. I said that this is a meeting I cannot attend,” he stressed.

“The position of the Turkish Cypriot people is clear and simple. As I said to her, we are the real hostages here”.

Also speaking to reporters following her meeting with Tatar, which came hours after she met with the Greek Cypriot leader Christodoulides, the Secretary General’s Personal Envoy Holguin said that “we must now think of the future.

“What I am going to do is listen to the people, listen to civil society, the needs of the people, what they want,” she said, adding that she learned this after participating in the peace process in Colombia.

“We must listen to the people and civil society. Because leaders must seek common ground,” she said.

“We are going to help. We are here to facilitate and I am very happy to do so,” she added.