Dana says rotating presidency is indispensable to political equality

Nicosia, Cyprus. A rotating presidency between the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot communities in a post-solution Cyprus is an “indispensable component of political equality”, Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman’s undersecretary Mehmet Dana said on Friday. His comments come amid continuing differences between the two sides over the meaning of political equality.

Political equality

Dana told the Cyprus Mail that political equality is the basis of a structure involving the joint exercise of a limited number of specific powers and shared competences.

“Political equality forms the foundation of a structure requiring the joint exercise of a limited number of specific powers, shared competences, and this is not open to negotiation,” he said.

He said the “primary reason” for the collapse of previous rounds of Cyprus talks, particularly the negotiations between Nicos Anastasiades and Mustafa Akinci at Crans-Montana in 2017, was that political equality had been made a subject of negotiation and was subsequently used to create a deadlock.

Terms to be negotiated

Dana said that, guided by the United Nations secretary-general’s approach that “this time must be different”, the issue should be accepted in principle before negotiations begin.

He said the detailed terms of a rotating presidency, including the duration of each side’s tenure and other arrangements, could be negotiated after talks commence.

Greek Cypriot position

Dana’s remarks followed comments by deputy government spokesman Yiannis Antoniou, who told CyBC radio that the Turkish Cypriot side considers political equality to also imply sovereign equality.

Antoniou said this position could not be accepted by the Greek Cypriot side. He said whether a post-solution Cyprus should have a rotating presidency should be the product of negotiations and discussed when substantive talks resume.

He added that the Turkish Cypriot side is currently insisting on a rotating presidency rather than allowing negotiations to restart.

Methodology differences

Differences also remain over the fourth point of Erhurman’s four-point methodology, which calls for the United Nations to guarantee that embargoes on Turkish Cypriots would be lifted if the Greek Cypriot side leaves the negotiating table again.