ANKARA
Northern Cyprus’ president on Saturday received a delegation from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in the capital Lefkosa, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Presidency said in a statement.
“The Turkish Cypriot people are as sovereign as the Greek Cypriot side because we are co-owners of this island which is our inherent right,” Ersin Tatar told the delegation from the OIC Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission led by Haci Ali Acikgul, the senior human rights official at the Turkish Justice Ministry.
Reiterating that it was the Greek Cypriot administration which rejected the UN’s Annan plan in 2004 while the Turkish Cypriots accepted it, he said: “Despite this outcome, the Greek Cypriot side was admitted to the EU, while Turkish Cypriots were left out in the cold.”
He added: “Various promises were made by many different international actors on ending our isolation and restoring our human rights, which including direct trade necessary for our individual and collective development, but these were never realized.”
The Greek Cypriot side’s EU membership further complicated the Cyprus issue, Tatar stressed.
He also stressed that the Cyprus issue, aside from being a geostrategic issue with an international dimension, is also a human rights problem, as Turkish Cypriots have faced an unjust isolation and embargo.
Muslim countries should help end the unjust isolation of the Turkish Cypriot people, he said.
Decades-long dispute
Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the UN 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 of the island led to Turkiye’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 Turkiye, Greece and the UK.
The Greek Cypriot administration entered the European Union in 2004, the same year Greek Cypriots thwarted a UN plan to end the longstanding dispute.
