Northern Cyprus' president criticizes EU declaration

LEFKOSA/ISTANBUL

Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Ersin Tatar slammed the European Union’s position on the Cyprus issue on Thursday.

"The EU surrendered to the Greek Cypriot side," he said in response to the final declaration of the EU Leaders Summit in Brussels.

Tatar criticized the EU's lack of impartiality on Cyprus, arguing that it violated its own criteria by admitting Greece, according to a written statement by the presidency.

He highlighted the roots of the Cyprus issue in Southern Cyprus' actions back in 1963 and noted that linking Türkiye-EU relations with the Cyprus issue would be nothing more than a futile discourse.

Tatar accused Southern Cyprus’s leadership of repeated negotiation failures.

He insisted on Turkish Cypriot sovereign equality and adamantly refused to engage in processes that have proven futile in the past.

"We call on the EU to give up being a prisoner of the Southern Cyprus side and to fulfill the requirements of its decision to lift the inhumane isolation imposed on the Turkish Cypriot people, which was taken by a council decision 20 years ago," he said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the TRNC also condemned the EU Leaders Summit's final declaration, asserting that the EU perpetuated the island's status quo with its insistence on exhausted solution proposals.

"By insisting on exhausted solution proposals, the European Union is only serving the continuation of the situation on the island," it said.

Highlighting the EU's acceptance of Southern Cyprus against its own criteria, the ministry blamed the bloc for the ongoing situation in Cyprus, emphasizing its pro-Greek Administration stance.

Noting that current models have been ineffective for over half a century, the ministry said "the time has come for a two-state solution."