Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday urged the lifting of political restrictions that have been unfairly imposed on the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).
Citing the late architect of the 2004 Annan plan, which was accepted by Turkish Cypriots but rejected by Greek Cypriots, with no fallout for the Greek Cypriot side, Erdoğan said: “I invite the international community to heed the call of then-(UN) Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who admitted that there is no UN Security Council resolution that could justify the isolation of our Turkish Cypriot brothers, to remove these completely political restrictions, lacking any legal basis.”
Inaugurating a newly renovated and expanded Ercan Airport in the TRNC, Erdogan also reiterated his call on the international community to support the idea of two equal states living side by side in Cyprus, rejecting the culture of domination, tension, and conflict on the island.
The days when Ercan Airport’s new terminal and runway will be full of international flights “are not far away,” said the Turkish president.
“The new terminal is six times larger than the previous one, meaning it is now capable of serving 10 million passengers,” he said, adding that Ercan Airport also has the largest passenger capacity of any airport on the Eastern Mediterranean island.
Cyprus issue
Despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the UN to achieve a comprehensive settlement, Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.
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 Peace Operation 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 recently, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Türkiye, Greece, and the UK.
The Greek Cypriot administration entered the EU in 2004, the same year Greek Cypriots thwarted a UN plan to end the longstanding dispute.
Türkiye fully supports a two-state solution on the island of Cyprus based on sovereign equality and equal international status.