Turkish Cypriot leader extends New Year greetings

By Muhammet Ikbal Arslan

LEFKOSA, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (AA) - Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Ersin Tatar marked the arrival of 2021 with a greeting message.

In his message, Tatar said: "I wish the new year brings joy, health and peace to our country and to the whole world. As we leave 2020 behind, I greet you with the hope that the pandemic, which will never be erased from our memories, will end in 2021."

Noting that while hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives due to the pandemic, Tatar said: "With the development of the vaccine, I hope that the novel coronavirus outbreak will be brought under control in 2021."

He also thanked motherland Turkey for lending its helping hand to the TRNC in the fight against the outbreak.

Highlighting another important development in 2020, Tatar said that with the presidential election in TRNC, two-state solution for the Cyprus dispute based on sovereign equality was brought to the agenda.

"Our efforts to protect the Turkish Cypriots’ national cause […] continue in cooperation with Turkey," he added.

Meanwhile, TRNC Prime Minister Ersan Saner, in his new year message, said that almost the whole of 2020 passed struggling with an unprecedented pandemic which affected economies, social life, people’s psychology negatively.

He stated that TRNC’s economy also shrank, underlining that they have made their utmost contribution as a state to enable all sectors to stand despite economic problems.

With great support of the motherland Turkey, Saner said that they took vital steps to minimize the negative effects of the outbreak, successfully combat the pandemic and eliminate deficiencies in the health sector.

"Hopefully, 2021 will be a year that we will normalize, in which we can travel our beautiful country, our world, and hug each other in a friendly and brotherly manner," he added.

* Writing by Burak Dag in Ankara​​​​​​​​​​​​​​