President Ersin Tatar said that he had conveyed the need for a new approach on the Cyprus Problem to his Greek Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides.

He added that he had also told the Greek Cypriot leader that they will have to accept the sovereign equality of the TRNC for any official talks to begin

President Ersin Tatar told the press following his two hour long meeting with the Greek Cypriot leader that any settlement to be reached on the island needed to be based on the realities on the ground, which was that there were two separate states and peoples in Cyprus.

He said that everyone was fully aware that 50 years of federal talks had all ended in failure and that a settlement on this basis was unattainable.

Tatar also said that there was room for cooperation between the two sides and that his proposal for an earthquake response team was met positively by Christodoulides.

“I don’t know if this will be done in one of the existing technical committees or if it will be a separate arrangement. I think a separate study might be more accurate,” he said.

He said that Christodoulides offered to meet him for another informal meeting in the coming days.