ERTUĞRULOĞLU, HAHN AND ERHÜRMAN

The meeting between Mr. Tufan Erhürman and Mr. Nikos Christodoulides took place with the participation of Ms. Holguin, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative. Statements made after the meeting indicated that things were positive. Subsequently, President Tufan Erhürman also met with EU Representative Hahn.

The following issues were discussed during this meeting: the Schengen process; the rights of children born to mixed marriages regarding EU citizenship; direct contact with EU institutions; the issue of the Ad Hoc Harmonization Committee, which was frozen in order to harmonize the Turkish Cypriot community with the EU; the Direct Trade Regulation adopted by the EU but put on ice; the issue of the EU-supported GSI project; the lack of progress on the registration of halloumi/hellim, and EU-supported solar energy projects planned in the Buffer Zone. However, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu, reacted to this.

Was this reaction related to the topics, or content of the issues presented by President Erhürman to Mr. Hahn? No. He based his criticism of the meeting of President Erhürman on the fact that the EU, which decided to appoint Mr. Hahn as Special Representative for Cyprus, did not consult with him when making this decision. In his view, because Mr. Hahn’s appointment was not ‘consulted’ on, it was necessary to avoid discussing the vital issues raised by Mr. Erhürman. However, if the issue of consultation were a matter of principle for him, he should not have met with the Turkic States of Central Asia at all, given their statements in the Joint Declaration they issued following their meeting with the EU where they expressed their commitment to the UN Security Council resolutions condemning the declaration of the TRNC. Yet, no one asked Mr. Eruğruloğlu why he met with these states at the Organization of Turkic States, which made these decisions without ‘consulting’ him.

On this occasion, I would like to make the following suggestion to Mr. Ertuğruloğlu. As the Minister of Foreign Affairs, invite and meet with the Ambassadors of Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, who have been appointed as Ambassadors to the south. Because in international diplomacy, there is no room for sulking, or refusing to meet on self-imposed grounds. The principle of not discussing the issues raised by Mr. Tufan Erhürman in his meeting with Mr. Hahn purely on the grounds of ideological bigotry was found unacceptable by our people in the presidential elections, and for this reason, Mr. Erhürman was elected president with 62% of the vote.

What should happen is that the will of the people should not be overshadowed.

This article was originally published on 15.12.2025

Source: ERTUĞRULOĞLU, HAHN, AND ERHÜRMAN