Turkish Cyprus' 'new understanding' entails sovereign equality, equal international status

By Merve Aydogan

ANKARA (AA) - The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) is moving forward on the basis of sovereign equality and equal international status, said the country's president on Tuesday.

"Our new understanding and politics include sovereign equality and equal international status. We tell the world that an agreement on Cyprus would be reached with the cooperation of all states," Ersin Tatar said at Türkiye’s 13th Ambassadors Conference in Ankara, the capital.

Saying that Turkish Cyprus adopted a new political understanding after he took office in 2020, Tatar said: "We can now reach somewhere in Cyprus via sovereign equality. It will not be possible for us to live with an agreement on the basis of a federation."

Tatar continued by pledging to work in "full harmony" with Türkiye.

For his part, Türkiye's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that there were "tough negotiations (over the island) in the past."

"We could not reach a conclusion due to the Greek Cypriot side's refusal to find any solution and because they do not want to share anything with the Turkish Cypriot people," Cavusoglu said

Affirming that Ankara will continue to defend "the acquired right of usurped Turkish Cypriots," he urged for "this right to be restored."

- Decades-long dispute

Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the UN to achieve a comprehensive settlement.

Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety.

In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aiming at Greece’s annexation led to Türkiye’s military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence.

The TRNC was founded in 1983. It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Türkiye, Greece, and the UK.

The Greek Cypriot administration entered the EU in 2004, the same year Greek Cypriots thwarted the UN’s Annan plan to end the longstanding dispute.