Turkey sends another 50,000 vaccine doses to Northern Cyprus

LEFKOSA, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

Turkey sent 50,000 more coronavirus vaccine doses to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) on Friday.

A Turkish Health Ministry plane carrying the Sinovac jab landed at Ercan International Airport in Lefkosa, where officials of the TRNC’s Health Ministry received the shipment.

With the latest delivery, Turkey has provided the TRNC with 340,000 vaccine doses to date.

The island of Cyprus has been divided into the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in the north and the Greek Cypriot administration in the south since 1974, when a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece’s annexation of the island was followed by violence against the island’s Turks and Ankara’s intervention as a guarantor power.

*Writing by Sena Guler in Ankara