Turkish Cypriot officials on Thursday condemned remarks by Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides targeting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during his address to the United Nations General Assembly, while reiterating their support for a two-state solution to the decades-old Cyprus dispute.
Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister Ünal Üstel said he strongly condemned Christodoulides’ remarks about Erdoğan and highlighted that the Greek Cypriot leadership is presenting a distorted account of the island’s history.
"If hypocrisy is to be sought in Cyprus, the address is clear: the Greek Cypriot leadership and those who unconditionally applaud it,” Üstel said in a written statement.
Üstel argued that the roots of the Cyprus dispute lay in the breakdown of the power-sharing Republic of Cyprus established in 1960 and the exclusion of Turkish Cypriots from the government in the 1960s.
He also cited violence and displacement experienced by Turkish Cypriots between 1963 and 1974 and defended the continued presence of Turkish troops on the island as a security guarantee for the Turkish Cypriot community.
The Turkish Cypriot Foreign Ministry separately condemned Christodoulides’ U.N. address, accusing him of making "baseless allegations” against Türkiye and ignoring the experiences of Turkish Cypriots during the conflict.
The ministry also rejected renewed calls for a federal settlement, arguing that decades of negotiations based on that model had failed because the Greek Cypriot side had not accepted the equal status of Turkish Cypriots.
It said a lasting settlement could instead be achieved through recognition of the sovereign equality and equal international status of the Turkish Cypriot people.
The statements followed Erdoğan’s address to the 81st U.N. General Assembly in New York, where he reiterated Türkiye’s position on Cyprus and called on the international community to recognize the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and establish diplomatic, political and economic relations with it.
Recently, Turkish Cypriot President Tufan Erhürman and Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides met under U.N. auspices in the United Nations Protected Area in Nicosia (Lefkoşa), discussing confidence-building measures, methodology and substantive issues related to the decadeslong Cyprus dispute.
The United Nations described the talks as a "good discussion” and said the two leaders would brief U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on their work and discuss the way forward during upcoming engagements in New York.
Türkiye and the Turkish Cypriot leadership advocate a two-state settlement based on sovereign equality, while the Greek Cypriot side supports a bizonal, bicommunal federation under U.N. parameters.