Northern Cyprus' president due at UN General Assembly to tout 2-state solution

IZMIR, Turkey

To help put efforts to ensure recognition of Northern Cyprus in the international spotlight, the country’s president next week will travel to New York for the UN General Assembly, to make his case alongside Turkish leaders.

Ersin Tatar, president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), will travel to New York next Saturday, where he will also argue for the necessity of a two-state solution.

“Accompanied by my team, I am going to New York in the US on Sept. 18," said Tatar on Friday, on a visit to Izmir, Turkey.

“Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will be there as well. I requested appointments with various countries there to share the two-state solution, which we agreed on with Turkey.”

Marking the 99th anniversary of Izmir’s liberation during Turkey’s War of Independence, he said Greece and its collaborators are trying to expand its continental shelf in violation of the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne and other agreements.

Such moves are unacceptable for Turkey and would pave the way for troubles in the region, including freedom of navigation, he said.

There have been two states on the island of Cyprus ever since Turkish troops arrived in 1974, and no agreement without cooperation between the two separate states on Cyprus is possible, he reiterated.

A federal proposal for the island would not resolve its problems, said Tatar, adding that he and other Turkish Cypriot officials talk about the two-sovereign-state issue to the UN, EU and key countries at every possible opportunity.

“We maintain efforts to ensure recognition of the TRNC,” said Tatar.

Later meeting a group of army veterans in Izmir, the president said Turkey's 1974 military operation in Cyprus ushered in a new era and the Turkish Cypriots were liberated while the balance on the island was re-established once again.

Some circles attempted to bring the island into the control of Greek Cypriots through talks based on a federation model, he said, however, added that Turkish Cypriots would never renounce Turkey's role as a guarantor country and its military presence on the island.

Tatar further said the TRNC had established its policies and understanding with Turkey, which provided strong support for his country, and it would not make any concessions at a time when interests in the Eastern Mediterranean were of great importance.

Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek 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 led to Turkey's military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence. As a result, the TRNC was founded in 1983.

*Writing by Ali Murat Alhas