President Ersin Tatar has said that the international community dealing with the Cyprus problem needs to think outside the box.

“There are two different states, two different peoples and two different cultures in Cyprus. Unless our proposal for a solution is accepted, the negotiations will not begin” he said in an interview to the British daily, the Guardian.

In his interview to the British newspaper, The Guardian, President Ersin Tatar stressed that the international community dealing with the Cyprus problem should think outside the box, warning that the island will remain divided if the two-state solution model on the table in Cyprus is not accepted, and the natural gas resources in the region will remain untapped.

Pointing out that the federation solution model that has been negotiated for 50 years was now a waste of time, Tatar said, “Greek Cypriots refuse to share anything with the Turkish Cypriots after they joined the EU. They think they are masters of this island and that it is a Greek Hellenic Island. If we are to resume formal negotiations, we have to have our sovereign equality and status as an independent state recognized.”

The President also brushed off claims that the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) will become a Turkish colony.

“Türkiye is our motherland. “Türkiye sacrificed her own children for our security. We feel part of the Turkish race. The value of the hydrocarbons in the east Mediterranean was time-limited, and if the status of Cyprus is deadlocked, the hydrocarbons risked being left untapped as governments moved on to greener technology such as solar. Where this is a source of conflict over billions of dollars of natural resources, it can lead in the future to unpleasant events,” he said.