OMM Redaksiyası
The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) has again urged the international community to take steps toward reaffirming its sovereign equality and equal international status, according to a statement issued by its Foreign Ministry on Sunday.
The ministry said the official policies of the TRNC and Türkiye on the Cyprus issue are based on the principles of sovereign equality and equal international status. It added that any lasting settlement must recognise the equal status of the Turkish Cypriot side.
“The fundamental reality is that there are two separate peoples and two independent and sovereign states living side by side on the island,” the statement said. “Policies pursued in disregard of these realities will continue to be doomed to failure.”
Dispute over a proposed rotating presidency
Responding to proposals for a rotating presidency between Turkish and Greek Cypriots in a hypothetical state covering the entire island, the ministry said the model had been negotiated for decades but ultimately failed.
It attributed the collapse to what it described as the “maximalist and uncompromising stance” of the Greek Cypriot Administration, which it said had refused to recognise the TRNC’s equal status and rejected the sharing of governance and resources.
The ministry added that a rotating presidency within a unitary state was incompatible with the TRNC’s position, which is based on sovereign equality and equal international status.
European Parliament reference
The statement also criticised references in the European Parliament to “two seats allocated to Turkish Cypriots” and attempts to claim those seats.
According to the ministry, such an approach would amount to accepting the status of the so-called “Republic of Cyprus”, in which Turkish Cypriots neither participate nor are represented, as well as its European Union membership on that basis. The ministry said the institutions had been seized by the Greek Cypriot side in 1963.
“While such an approach cannot be accepted, the Turkish Cypriot people should also not be expected to support initiatives pursued in this direction,” it said.
The Greek Cypriot Administration has claimed to represent the entire island as an EU member since 2004, the statement added.
Decades-long Cyprus dispute
Cyprus has been divided by a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots despite repeated United Nations-backed diplomatic efforts to secure a comprehensive settlement.
Ethnic attacks that began in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety. In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at the annexation of the island by Greece led to Türkiye’s military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence.
The TRNC was established in 1983. Peace efforts have continued intermittently, including a 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of the guarantor countries Türkiye, Greece and the United Kingdom, which ended without an agreement.
The Greek Cypriot Administration joined the EU in 2004, the same year Greek Cypriots rejected a UN plan intended to resolve the longstanding dispute.
