Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday visited controversial area in Northern Cyprus occupied by Turkish forces, angry Cypriot and Greek leaders and fueled decades of conflict.
Mr Erdogan said he supported a two-state solution to the dispute over Cyprus, which has been effectively divided since 1974, with its Greek and Turkish communities – and its capital, Nicosia – separated by a buffer zone known as the Green Line. The Turkish President said there are “two different peoples” on the island with “two different democratic orders”.
It was a tense turn in an argument that has frustrated generations of peace efforts.
The internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus controls about two thirds of the island. Turkey invaded the northern part of the island in 1974 and recognized this area as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. But no other nation recognizes the area as that of Turkey.
The visit comes as Turkey has increasingly come into conflict with Greece and other Eastern Mediterranean countries over the region’s rich natural gas reserves – a dispute that is becoming increasingly militarized.
Mr Erdogan’s visit took place on the 37th anniversary of what Turkey has termed the “independence” of the territory. The trip on which he met Ersin Tatar, a pro-Turkish leader who won a presidential election in Northern Cyprus last month, met with criticism as it included a visit to Famagusta, a once busy tourist town that was closed after the invasion of Turkish forces was abandoned.
The visit took place a month after the Turkish government announced that it would partially reopen the Varosha beach area in Famagusta. The area is close to the Green Line that divides the Greek and Turkish communities. The United Nations Security Council called for the decision to be reversed, saying it feared reopening the area would create tension.
Both Cyprus and Greece strongly condemned the visit. The Cypriot government said Mr Erdogan’s decision to take the trip to mark the “dark anniversary” of the “declaration of the illegal regime” shows Turkey’s lack of respect for international law and European values. The visit would “torpedo” the efforts of the United Nations to negotiate a solution to the dispute.
Prior to the visit, the Greek Foreign Ministry called the move “an unprecedented provocation” that violated Security Council resolutions.
Mr Erdogan did not give in in his remarks on Sunday. “No equation in the Eastern Mediterranean, in which Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus are not fairly included, can create peace and stability,” he said.
Cyprus is home to the longest-serving peacekeeping mission in United Nations history. An attempt to revive the peace talks failed last year. The negotiations were last broken in 2017 after differences of opinion over the fate of the more than 35,000 Turkish troops remaining in the region.
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