The official recognition of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) is necessary for the security and welfare of Turkish Cypriots on the island, the country's foreign minister said Monday.
Speaking in a televised interview, Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu said that there is no need for a model discussion on Cyprus, adding: "The TRNC is the state of all of us, the recognition of the state is necessary for all of us. It is necessary for the Turkish nation. It is necessary for the security and welfare of the Turkish Cypriots on this island."
Ertuğruloğlu reiterated that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made a speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) demanding the recognition of Turkish Cyprus and the lifting of the inhuman embargoes on the Turkish Cypriot people.
"This is a call that should be taken seriously. It is extremely important for us, history was made that day. As I mentioned before, this event was like a holiday for the Turkish Cypriot people who believed in this. We were proud. It is a fact that there are people who rejoice at this call, but there are also people who are saddened by it, even if it is a small group. I personally do not think that it is wrong to demand recognition of one's own state," he explained.
Expressing that until today, a policy demanding the recognition of the TRNC has not been included in the international arena and added: "While the negotiation processes called 'inter-communal talks' were going on, we never put the recognition of the TRNC on the agenda. We participated in the negotiations without asking for recognition, foreseeing to obtain the right of the TRNC within and as a result of the negotiations. Homeland Türkiye has come to a policy demanding the recognition of the TRNC regarding Cyprus. This is a first. Here is the significance of the event."
Stating that the policy of recognition has been carried out since 2017, and that its name has been given now, Ertuğruloğlu noted that President Erdoğan's speech was not a surprise.
"After the collapse of the Crans-Montana negotiations in 2017, the Turkish side's policy was grounded in sovereign equality and equal international status. We have come to a policy on the ground that the old negotiation processes have disappeared and that we should not expect different results by repeating the same things. It was placed on the ground of foreign policy demanding sovereign equality and equal international status. What do sovereign equality and equal international status mean? That is recognition anyway. What is the recognition of a state's sovereign equality and the registration of its equal international status, if not recognition? A policy has been pursued since 2017, with a policy that raises recognition without demanding explicit recognition. It has now been named."
Ertuğruloğlu recently called on Islamic countries to officially recognize the TRNC. The recognition would reaffirm sovereign equality and equal international status of the TRNC, the minister told the annual coordination meeting of foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) members at the U.N. headquarters in New York.
Five decades of failed negotiations led us to develop a new policy, he said, adding that urgent steps by OIC member states are needed to overcome inhuman and immoral restrictions and embargoes imposed on TRNC by the Greek Cypriot administration.
Such a move would also correspond with the OIC's understanding of solidarity among Islamic nations, Ertuğruloğlu urged.
"The reality is," he stressed, "that there are two equal and separate nations in Cyprus, and any attempt aiming to find a resolution to the decadeslong dispute should take this state of affairs into consideration."
Cyprus has been mired in a decadeslong dispute between the Turkish and Greek Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the U.N. 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 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. The TRNC is only officially recognized by Türkiye.
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 European Union in 2004, the same year Greek Cypriots thwarted the U.N.'s Annan Plan to end the longstanding dispute.
Today, the Turkish side supports a solution based on the equal sovereignty of the two states on the island. On the other hand, the Greek side wants a federal solution based on the hegemony of the Greeks.
Türkiye, which has the longest continental coastline in the Eastern Mediterranean, has rejected maritime boundary claims by Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration, stressing that their excessive claims violate the sovereign rights of Türkiye and Turkish Cyprus.