Türkiye late Saturday condemned the arson attack on the Köprülü Hacı Ibrahim Ağa Mosque in the Greek Cypriot administration’s city of Limassol, citing the incident as another example of Islamophobia.
“This heinous attack is yet another addition to the past acts against different mosques in the Greek Cypriot Administration,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a written statement.
“As the latest example of the growing Islamophobia across Europe, this attack not only targets Muslims but also demonstrates once again how grave the threat to our common human values has become,” it continued.
The statement added that the “hatred and intolerance revealed by the said attack indicate how far removed some segments of the Greek Cypriot community are from an understanding of living together in peace, tranquility and tolerance with the Muslim Turkish Cypriots, providing additional proof that the two-state vision of the Turkish Cypriot side constitutes the only realistic model for the settlement of the Cyprus issue.”
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Ersin Tatar similarly condemned the attack, saying that “the attack is a manifestation of a hostile rage toward the holy values and belief of more than 2 billion people in the world.”
Tatar also called on the Greek Cypriot administration to bring the perpetrator before justice as soon as possible.
Türkiye's ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Ömer Çelik on Sunday also slammed the attack and said that Ankara expects the Greek Cypriot administration to take action.
The island has been mired in a decadeslong dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish 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.
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. Annan Plan to end the longstanding dispute.
Today, Turkish Cyprus 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.
