The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) attaches importance to the presence of the Turkish military as a deterrent force in Cyprus under the guarantor state Türkiye, drawing its "red lines," said the TRNC president.
Speaking at an event on Friday in the capital Lefkosa marking the 1963 Christmas massacre by a Greek terrorist group, Tatar told how in decades past Turkish Cypriots were subjected to massacres, and the islands’ Greeks tried to annex the region to Greece, saying, "Indeed, there are still those who dream of this," according to the Cypriot News Agency.
He decried how the international community continues to put pressure on the Turkish Cypriot people, intending to include the north and south under the EU, and sever historical ties with Türkiye.
Underlining that the Turkish Cypriot people do not want to go back to the time before the 1974 Turkish Peace Operation, Tatar said: "The world must respect the will of the Turkish Cypriot people. We attach importance to the presence of the Turkish military as a deterrent force under the guarantee of our motherland within the framework of our own state. These are our red lines."
Pointing to a two-state solution, he said: "We can only accept a solution model where two sovereign equal states cooperate side by side. We can never and should never agree to be dragged into an adventure without Türkiye, without the guarantee of our motherland."
On December 21, 1963, in the "Bloody Christmas” massacre, the Greek Cypriot terrorist group EOKA killed dozens of Turkish Cypriots in Ayvasil, Lefkosa.
On 'maritime spatial planning' approved by Southern Cyprus
The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) denounced Friday the "maritime spatial planning" approved earlier this week by the Greek Cypriot administration.
The Foreign Ministry stressed that the unilateral approach is “unacceptable.”
“Besides the so-called ‘maritime spatial planning’ declared by Greek Cypriot administration through ignoring the rights and interests of the Turkish Cypriots, Southern Cyprus has gone so far as to publish a map that overlaps with the maritime jurisdiction areas declared by Northern Cyprus and Türkiye,” it said in a statement.
"This so-called plan and map, in which the Turkish Cypriot people have no say, are null and void according to international law and have no validity for us," it said.
"Despite all our constructive calls, the Greek Cypriot Administration, which has continued to violate the equal rights of the Turkish Cypriot people regarding the island and its surroundings with its unilateral activities, has once again shown its preference for escalating tension instead of cooperation in the island and the Eastern Mediterranean region," it added.
Decades-long conflict
The Eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts to achieve a comprehensive settlement.
Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their own safety.
In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece’s annexation of the island led to Türkiye’s military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence. The TRNC was founded on November 15, 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 UK.
The Greek Cypriot administration was admitted to the EU in 2004, the same year the Greek Cypriots thwarted a UN plan to end the longstanding dispute.
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