ANKARA 

The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) attaches importance to the presence of the Turkish military as a deterrent force on Cyprus under the guarantor state Türkiye, drawing its "red lines," said the TRNC president on Friday.   

Speaking at an event in the capital Lefkosa marking the 1963 Christmas massacre by a Greek terrorist group, Tatar told how in decades past Turkish Cypriots were subjected to massacres, and the islands’ Greeks tried to annex the region to Greece, saying, "Indeed, there are still those who dream of this," according to the Cypriot News Agency. 

He decried how the international community continues to put pressure on the Turkish Cypriot people, intending to include the north and south under the EU, and sever historical ties with Türkiye. 

Underlining that the Turkish Cypriot people do not want to go back to the time before the 1974 Turkish Peace Operation, Tatar said: "The world must respect the will of the Turkish Cypriot people. We attach importance to the presence of the Turkish military as a deterrent force under the guarantee of our motherland within the framework of our own state. These are our red lines." 

Pointing to a two-state solution, he said: "We can only accept a solution model where two sovereign equal states cooperate side by side. We can never and should never agree to be dragged into an adventure without Turkey, without the guarantee of our motherland."

On Dec. 21, 1963, in the "Bloody Christmas” massacre, the Greek Cypriot terrorist group EOKA killed dozens of Turkish Cypriots in Ayvasil, Lefkosa.  

Decades-long conflict

The Eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts to achieve a comprehensive settlement.

Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their own 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. The TRNC was founded on Nov. 15, 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 was admitted to the EU in 2004, the same year the Greek Cypriots thwarted a UN plan to end the longstanding dispute.  

*Writing by Alperen Aktas from Istanbul