AA / Istanbul / Beril Canakci
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that any future Cyprus negotiation process will have to be done between two states, on the basis of “sovereign equality”, not between two communities.
“As long as no solution reflecting the island’s realities is found, we will not recognize or trade with the Greek Cypriot Administration,” he said during the inauguration of the presidential complex and the Assembly of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (RTCN), in Lefkosa.
Erdogan has also reiterated firm support from Türkiye to Turkish Cypriots, warning that those who try to “hinder their development” will come up against the solidarity of Ankara with Lefkosa.
– A several decades older dispute
Cyprus is the scene of a long -standing conflict between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, despite numerous diplomatic attempts from the United Nations to achieve a global agreement.
-From the 1960s, ethnic attacks forced Turkish Cypriots to fall back into enclaves for their safety.
In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup d’etat aimed at attaching the island to Greece led to a military intervention by Türkiye, acting as a guaranteeing power, in order to protect Turkish Cypriots. Thus, RTCN was proclaimed in 1983.
Since then, several attempts at peace have failed, including an initiative launched in 2017 in Switzerland under the aegis of the guaranteeing countries that are Türkiye, Greece and the United Kingdom.
In 2004, the Greek Cypriot administration entered the European Union, even though it had rejected, alone, a UN plan aimed at resolving the conflict.
* Translated from English by Adama Bamba
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