ISTANBUL
The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) has criticized the EU over the Greek Cypriot Administration’s assumption of the rotating presidency of the EU Council, accusing the bloc of maintaining a biased approach that ignores the Turkish Cypriot people.
A written TRNC Foreign Ministry statement said the move reflects the EU’s long-standing “distorted and one-sided” stance on the Cyprus issue and contradicts the bloc’s own declared values, as reported by the Turkish Cypriot News Agency on Friday.
“The systematic exclusion of the Turkish Cypriot people is not only a political injustice but also a clear contradiction of the European Union’s own fundamental values,” the statement said.
The ministry also said that the Republic of Cyprus, founded in 1960 as a partnership state between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots, lost its constitutional order following attacks on Turkish Cypriots in December 1963, arguing that the internationally recognized administration since then effectively represents a Greek Cypriot state.
Despite this, the EU admitted the Greek Cypriot Administration as a member in 2004, a decision the ministry said made the bloc a party to the Cyprus dispute rather than a neutral actor.
The ministry said the Turkish Cypriot side has repeatedly shown goodwill toward a settlement, stressing that sovereign equality and equal international status are essential foundations for any solution.
It added that unless the EU acknowledges past mistakes and abandons what it described as alignment with maximalist Greek Cypriot positions, it will not gain credibility among Turkish Cypriots.
The Greek Cypriot Administration assumed the EU’s six-month rotating presidency on Jan. 1. On July 1, it will be succeeded by Ireland.
- Decades-long problem
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 Türkiye’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 Türkiye, Greece, and the UK.
The Greek Cypriot Administration entered the European Union in 2004, the same year that Greek Cypriots single-handedly blocked a UN plan to end the longstanding dispute.