Türkiye’s top diplomat said Ankara would continue to protect the rights and interests of Turkish Cypriots regarding the region’s energy resources.
"We have protected and continue to protect the rights and interests of the Turkish Cypriots in Cyprus Island and its surroundings over energy resources," Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Twitter.
Greece has disputed Türkiye’s current energy exploration activities in the Eastern Mediterranean, trying to box in Turkish maritime territory based on small islands near the Turkish coast.
Türkiye – the country with the longest coastline on the Mediterranean – has sent out drillships to explore for energy on its continental shelf, saying that both Türkiye and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) have rights in the region.
Dialogue for sharing these resources reasonably would be a win-win for all sides, Turkish officials say.
Underlining that the federation solution model, which has been tried for half a century, is no longer appropriate, Çavuşoğlu said Türkiye strongly supports the "two-state solution based on sovereign equality."
Türkiye ensured that the TRNC was accepted as an "observer member" of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS), adding that the TRNC was admitted to an international organization with its constitutional name for the first time.
Çavuşoğlu also expressed support for the opening of the coastal area of Varosha (Maraş), which had virtually become a ghost town, as it remained cut off from the world for 47 years.
A portion of the region – about 3.5% of its total area – reopened in October 2020. Maraş was abandoned after a 1984 U.N. Security Council resolution that said only its original inhabitants could resettle in the town.
Decadeslong dispute
Despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the U.N. to achieve a comprehensive settlement, Cyprus has been mired in a decadeslong dispute between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.
Ethnic attacks 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 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 recently seen an on-and-off peace process, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Türkiye, Greece and the U.K.
The Greek Cypriot administration joined the European Union in 2004, the same year Greek Cypriots thwarted a U.N. plan to end the longstanding dispute.