President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday inaugurated the expanded international airport serving the capital of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), which is dubbed as the airport with the largest passenger capacity on the island of Cyprus.
The launch of the new runway and a terminal building of the Ercan Airport during a ceremony in Lefkoşa (Nicosia) on Thursday coincided with the 49th anniversary of Türkiye's military operation conducted to protect the Turkish population on the Eastern Mediterranean island.
"The new terminal has been enlarged six times compared to the old one. Now, it will be able to serve 10 million passengers," Erdoğan said during the inauguration ceremony.
"As of today, Ercan Airport is the airport with the largest passenger capacity on the island of Cyprus," he said.
Ercan Airport's annual passenger capacity, currently at 4 million, is projected to initially increase to as much as 8 million with the new terminal and runway.
It is also expected to generate about 30 million euros ($33.56 million) in annual public revenue.
The new runaway spans 3,100 meters (10,170 feet), compared to the existing one of 2,755 meters.
The airport boasts of a parking area for a total of 30 aircraft. It will feature an indoor parking lot with a capacity of 1,500 vehicles and state-of-the-art new equipment. The facility is expected to make a significant contribution to the country's tourism and economy.
The president noted that this will contribute to making the TRNC "a stability basin in the Eastern Mediterranean, and a brand in the region."
"The days when the new terminal and runway, we are inaugurating today, will be used for international flights are not far," he added.
The president also urged the lifting of political restrictions that have been unfairly imposed on the 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, Erdogan said: "I invite the international community to heed the call of then-(U.N.) Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who admitted that there is no U.N. Security Council resolution that could justify the isolation of our Turkish Cypriot brothers, to remove these completely political restrictions, lacking any legal basis."
The island of Cyprus has been mired in a decadeslong dispute between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the United Nations for 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 Türkiye’s military intervention as a guarantor of power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence.
The TRNC was founded in 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 United Kingdom.
The Greek Cypriot administration entered the EU in 2004, the same year that Greek Cypriots thwarted a U.N. 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.