NICOSIA: The breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in northern Cyprus hopes to end its international isolation, its leader Ersin Tatar said in an interview with AFP, as the Mediterranean island marks five decades of division.
“We work every day for recognition,” said the president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), which was proclaimed by Turkish Cypriot leaders in 1983 but is recognized only by Ankara.
“Turkish Cypriots have suffered many disadvantages – embargoes, isolation,” Tatar said in the interview conducted on Thursday.
This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Turkish invasion of the north, five days after the junta then in power in Athens carried out a coup that sought to unite the entire island with Greece.
As a result of the invasion, the island was ethnically divided: about 170,000 Greek Cypriots fled the north and were replaced by about 40,000 Turkish Cypriots expelled from the government-controlled south.
But Turkish Cypriots were always denied international recognition, which also had an impact on the economy of the north.
All flights to Northern Cyprus must make at least one stopover in Turkey, which hinders the development of large-scale tourism.
The rejection of a UN peace plan by Greek Cypriot voters in a 2004 referendum resulted in Cyprus joining the European Union that same year – still as a divided island. Turkish Cypriots were denied the full benefits of membership.
“I would very much like to see a UN Security Council resolution declaring that we recognize the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,” Tatar said.
“The Greek Cypriots obviously have a bigger piece of the pie. Tourism is booming, their economy is booming,” he added.
United Nations-backed efforts to reunify the island as a bizonal, bicommunal federation have stalled since the last round of talks failed in 2017.
The Turkish Cypriot leadership believes that a two-state solution is the only way forward following the failure of the UN-backed reunification talks.
Greek Cypriot politicians say they remain committed to the United Nations-backed process.
The United Nations, whose peacekeepers patrol a buffer zone behind the former front line between the two sides, is pushing for a resumption of talks between leaders of the two communities.
“All I want is a concerted effort to find a practical, fair, just and sustainable solution. But on an equal basis, a sovereign, equal basis,” Tatar said.
For Tatar, “1974 was a turning point for Turkish Cypriots, a new hope,” said the politician, who was then a 13-year-old student at the English School in Nicosia and was on holiday in London when he heard the news.
He referred to the violence and discrimination against the minority community in the decade before the invasion and insisted that Turkish troops landed to “protect Turkish Cypriots”.
A controversial treaty between Britain, Greece and Turkey that accompanied the island’s independence in 1960 gave the three powers the right to intervene to guarantee the island’s constitution.
The treaty also prohibited the division and annexation of any part of the island to Greece or Turkey.
“For this reason, we are talking about a Turkish intervention, which arises from the right granted to Turkey by the 1960 agreement,” Tatar said.
He said the Turkish troop contingent in northern Cyprus – around 40,000 soldiers according to the United Nations – was a “deterrent force” that had “ensured that we have peace on the island”.
Despite the many challenges, we have essentially succeeded in “developing our state from nothing into a consolidated state with all the functions and opportunities that any modern state has,” Tatar said.