The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) expects the international community to lift embargoes and restrictions on the country, President Ersin Tatar said on Monday.
Speaking at the global quality summit in Istanbul, Tatar said that Turkish Cypriots deserve an independent and honorable life.
"With these injustices done to us by the international community, they are trying to cut us off from the international community, which is, in a way, cruelty."
"We do not defend a federation in Cyprus, that is, a partnership with the Greek Cypriots. Because if a new partnership in Cyprus were on a federal basis, this would be the beginning of the end of Turks in Cyprus. What they always said and wanted to do years ago is to get Türkiye out of Cyprus," he said.
“If there will be an agreement in Cyprus, it will not be a partnership, but a Turkish state in the north with the cooperation of the two separate states living side by side."
Tatar added that a federation does not serve the national interests of the TRNC.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had conveyed similar messages to the international community during his speech last month at the 77th General Assembly of the United Nations.
“Together with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, we made good-intentioned efforts. We invite the international community to end the persecution of the Turkish Cypriots and to officially recognize the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus as soon as possible,” Erdoğan said.
Cyprus 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 Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus 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, 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.
