Ahead of a landmark Turkish operation's anniversary, Turkish Cypriot President Ersin Tatar expressed hope that the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) would end its international isolation.
"Every day, we are working for recognition," Tatar told Agence France-Presse (AFP). "Turkish Cypriots have been (put) under a lot of disadvantages – embargoes, isolation," Tatar said.
This month marks the 50th anniversary of Türkiye's Peace Operation in the north, five days after a coup orchestrated by the junta then in power in Athens sought to unite the whole island with Greece.
International recognition has always eluded the Turkish Cypriots, with knock-on effects on the TRNC economy.
All flights to Turkish Cyprus have to make at least a stopover in Türkiye, hampering the development of large-scale tourism. The rejection of a U.N. peace plan by Greek Cypriot voters in a 2004 referendum meant the island of Cyprus entered the European Union that year still divided, with Turkish Cypriots denied the full benefits of membership.
"I would very much hope to see a resolution from the United Nations Security Council saying that we do recognize the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus," Tatar said. "Greek Cypriots are obviously having a bigger part of the cake. Tourism is prospering, their economy is prospering," he added.
Half a century of U.N.-backed efforts to reunify the island as a bizonal, bicommunal federation have been at a standstill since the last round of talks collapsed in 2017. The Turkish Cypriot leadership says that with the U.N.-backed reunification talks dead, a two-state solution is the only forward after 50 years of failed negotiations. Greek Cypriot leaders say they remain committed to the failed U.N.-backed process, as the status quo benefits them.
The United Nations, whose peacekeepers patrol a buffer zone behind the former front line between the two sides, is pressing for talks to resume between the leaders of the two communities. "All I want is concerted efforts to find a practical, fair, just and sustainable settlement. But on an equal basis, a sovereign equal basis," said Tatar.
For Tatar, "1974 was a turning point for Turkish Cypriots, a new hope," said the leader, who was a 13-year-old pupil at the English School in Lefkoşa (Nicosia) at the time and on holiday in London when he heard the news.
Citing violence and discrimination against the Turkish Cypriots in the decade leading up to the operation, he reiterated the fact that Turkish troops landed to protect the Turkish Cypriots as a guarantor power.
A treaty between Britain, Greece and Türkiye that accompanied the island's independence in 1960 gave the three powers the right to intervene to guarantee the island's Constitution.
The treaty also outlawed partition and the union of any part of the island with Greece (which the Greek junta sought) or Türkiye. "This is why we call it Turkish intervention as a result of the right given to Türkiye by the 1960 agreement," Tatar said.
He highlighted that the Turkish troop contingent in Turkish Cyprus, around 40,000 soldiers, according to the U.N., was a "deterrent force" that had "ensured that we had peace on the island."
Despite the many challenges, "what we have achieved is basically to develop our state from nothing to a consolidated state with all the functions and faculties that you would have in any modern state," Tatar said.
