Ankara wants to see the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) become self-sufficient and confident, Vice President Fuat Oktay said Monday.
Speaking at a joint news conference with TRNC Prime Minister Ersan Saner at the presidential complex in the capital Ankara, Oktay said there are "a few points" that his country always emphasizes regarding economic and development cooperation with the TRNC.
"We desire a progressing TRNC that is self-sufficient, stands on its feet with self-confidence, can produce added value with its industry, agriculture and production besides tourism, has completed the structural reforms needed for its realization and whose decision-making mechanisms work in the most effective way. In this direction, we said that we, as Turkey, will do whatever we have to do, and we reiterate this will here today," Oktay said.
"We will continue to create a much stronger TRNC together which will carry Turkey-TRNC cooperation and brotherhood to a much further level," he added.
Oktay also noted that he had a comprehensive meeting with Saner on the common agenda.
"We have put forward our solution proposals by comprehensively addressing the projects carried out in the TRNC and the developments in the political and economic fields. We also had the opportunity to go through the ongoing projects."
The vice president said they evaluated in particular the actions agreed with the 2021 Cooperation Protocol, as well as its shortcomings and the point reached.
"The Greek side should stop seeing themselves as the sole owner of the island," Oktay said.
He stressed that the Greek side did not give up trying to disguise the federation model that they rejected for years.
"The Turkish side no longer has time to waste on empty rhetoric and negotiations with an uncertain end. It is futile to seek solutions within the parameters of the U.N. that are outdated and do not reflect the consent of both parties," he said.
Oktay went on to say that this is now a "struggle for survival, independence and the future" of the Turkish Cypriot people and the TRNC.
The divided island has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including the failed 2017 Crans-Montana Conference in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Turkey, Greece and the United Kingdom and the latest U.N. 5+1 Cyprus talks in Geneva, which ended without any concrete result.
Diplomats in April had tried to make headway to end the decades-old conflict between rival Greek and Turkish Cypriots that destabilizes the Eastern Mediterranean and is a key source of tension between NATO allies Greece and Turkey.
However, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said there is "no common ground yet" to resume formal negotiations on the settlement of the Cyprus problem.
The island has been divided since 1964 when ethnic attacks forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety. In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aiming at Greece's annexation led to Turkey's military intervention as a guarantor power. The TRNC was founded in 1983.
While Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration support a federation on Cyprus, Turkey and the TRNC insist on a two-state solution reflecting the realities on the island.
The Greek Cypriot administration, backed by Greece, became a member of the EU in 2004, even though most Greek Cypriots rejected a U.N. settlement plan in a referendum that year that had envisaged a reunited Cyprus joining the EU.
