The statement regarding the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’ (TRNC) observer membership to the Organization of Turkish States (OTS) has brought the assumption that the European Union thinks it can rule over the Turkish Cypriots’ future in line with the bloc’s own interests to an intolerable dimension, TRNC Foreign Minister Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu said Sunday.
According to the written statement made by the TRNC Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the top diplomat said: “The statement regarding our observer membership in the Organization of Turkish States has brought to an intolerable dimension the assumption that the EU can rule our future in line with its own interests. It is beyond the limits of the European Union, which cannot even have a say in its own members, to reject the statements of Türkiye announcing the decision of the Organization of Turkish States or to warn the member states of the organization.”
In his statement, Ertuğruloğlu stated that the EU, which knows very well that it has no right to interfere with the decisions of another international organization, succumbed to its intolerance for the existence of the TRNC and fell into a ridiculous situation.
Emphasizing that the elements directly related to the TRNC in the EU’s statement are unacceptable and completely wrong, Ertuğruloğlu added: “This is our last call to the European Union, which continues to ignore the right of the Turkish Cypriot people to determine their own destiny, their legitimate rights and interests on the island of Cyprus, and the fact that they have as much say over the future of Cyprus as the Greek side. The EU adds new links to the chain of wrong decisions it started by making the Greek Cypriot side a member unilaterally. This situation is reaching a level that will cause a deadlock that may primarily harm the member states.”
Ertuğruloğlu stated that neither the Greeks nor the EU has the right or the power to dictate any solution for the Cyprus problem and said: “With the awareness of all these facts, as the Turkish Cypriot side, our belief that the two-state solution is the most correct and fruitful model continues to increase.”
Ertuğruloğlu stated that the EU’s statements reflect his discomfort that its biased approach has begun to lose its value and that the new vision of the TRNC has found ground.
“The European Union should immediately put an end to the policy of making the Turkish Cypriot side and people pay the price, putting pressure on them and restricting their rights in every field, which uses its free will in favor of a two-state solution, essentially in line with its own values.”
In his statement, Ertuğruloğlu also stated that if the current attitude of the EU continues, the TRNC government will be determined to make a new arrangement by urgently reviewing its relations with the EU.
“As stated in the (Organization of Turkic States) Summit Declaration, the Turkish Cypriots are an inseparable part of the Turkic world, it is their natural right to establish and develop relations with the Turkic States in every field,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said the EU’s attempts “to hinder the Turkish Cypriot people to become a respectable member of the international community, are incompatible with goodwill, and they also once again clearly reveal the hypocrisy of the union, which has been captivated by the vicious policies of the Greek Cypriot administration and Greece.”
“A just, lasting and sustainable settlement on the Island of Cyprus can only be reached following a process that will be initiated with the reaffirmation of the inherent sovereign equality and equal international status of the Turkish Cypriot people, which have been usurped since 1963,” it added.
The international community needs to abandon its attitude that sees the Greek Cypriot side as the sole owner of the island and recognize the TRNC, said the ministry, adding: “Türkiye will, using all means, continue to stand by the TRNC and to be the voice of the Turkish Cypriots in all international platforms.”
In a statement, the EU said: “The European Union rejects the statements by Türkiye about the acceptance of the Turkish Cypriot secessionist entity, the so-called, internationally not recognized ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,’ as an observer in the Organization of Turkic States. This decision, pending ratification of the Organization’s members, is regrettable and is contradicting the fact that several members of the Organization expressed strong support for the principle of territorial integrity and the U.N. Charter. The EU has made it repeatedly clear, including at the highest political level, that the EU recognizes only the Republic of Cyprus as a subject of international law, in accordance with the respective U.N. Security Council Resolutions. Any action to facilitate or assist in any way the international recognition of the Turkish Cypriot secessionist entity severely damages efforts to create an environment conducive to resuming settlement talks under the auspices of the United Nations.”
Meanwhile, the TRNC Presidency in a statement said the EU has once again shown its biased approach.
The EU statement’s aim is to isolate the Turkish Cypriots from the world, and attach them with the Greek Cypriots under the guise of a federation, it added.
The island of Cyprus has been mired in a decadeslong dispute between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the U.N. 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 aimed at Greece’s annexation led to Türkiye’s military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence. As a result, 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 United Kingdom.
The Greek Cypriot administration entered the European Union in 2004, the same year Greek Cypriots thwarted the U.N. Annan Plan to end the longstanding dispute.
Today, the Turkish side supports a solution based on the equal sovereignty of the two states on the island. On the other hand, the Greek side wants a federal solution based on the hegemony of the Greeks.
