Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday told the United Nations general assembly that a solution to the Cyprus problem “cannot be built on the federal model”. This, he said, is because attempts to find a federal solution to the Cyprus problem have “failed due to the intransigent stance of the Greek Cypriot side”. “Turkey has rights and authority in the west of the island of Cyprus, while Turkish Cypriots have legitimate rights in the areas surrounding the island,” Erdogan told the general assembly, before turning his attention directly to the Cyprus problem. Turkish Cypriots are equal owners of the island and cannot accept being a minority. The international community must end the unjust isolation to which the Turkish Cypriots have been subjected for half a century,” he said.