A struggle for sovereignty built upon the legacy of blood and tears of the innocent finally led the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) to declare its foundation on Nov. 15, 1983. Its founders are long gone, and the state is longing for international recognition, but one all-weather friend was with it on Sunday as it marked Republic Day. Turkish officials pledged continuing support for the country on the divided Mediterranean island amid solemn ceremonies.
“The whole world has to accept that there are two states on this island,” Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz said in Lefkoşa (Nicosia), where he attended the ceremonies, and met Turkish Cypriot President Tufan Erhürman. Yılmaz was accompanied by other high-ranking officials from Türkiye, which is dubbed as “motherland” by most Turkish Cypriots, including Minister of National Defense Yaşar Güler. Hours before Yılmaz’s statements, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan issued a message to commemorate the day and remember martyrs and veterans who were killed by Greek Cypriots between 1960 and the mid-1970s during a violent campaign against Turkish Cypriots.
“I extend my greetings to my Turkish Cypriot brothers and sisters with whom we will remain in strong solidarity. Cyprus is our national cause, and we will never abandon it,” Erdoğan said.
Turkish Cypriots went through a lengthy political process disrupted by Greek Cypriot attacks and opposition to their existence on the island.
They were part of the island’s administration when it gained independence from British rule in 1960. Still, only three years later, they found themselves the target of a Greek Cypriot campaign to change their status to “minority” through amendments to the constitution, demoting them from founders of the republic to a mere community with no sovereignty rights.
Their rejection of the Greek Cypriot mandate and fight for self-determination led to several administrative entities, from a General Committee set up in 1963 to the Turkish Federated State of Cyprus founded in 1975.
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. As a result, the TRNC declared its independence on Nov. 15, 1983.
The Greek Cypriot administration was admitted to the European Union in 2004, the same year Greek Cypriots thwarted a U.N. plan to end the longstanding dispute.
An international embargo against Turkish Cyprus is currently in place in several areas, allowing access to international communications, postal services and transport only through Türkiye.
The TRNC and Türkiye have been committed to demanding a two-state solution that would ensure international recognition and equal sovereignty and status, which the Greek Cypriots reject.
Ceremonies began in the country with President Erhürman laying wreaths at the tombs of Rauf Denktaş and Dr. Fazıl Küçük, two iconic names who led the path to statehood. Around the same time, Republic Day ceremonies were underway in several Turkish cities, which were also attended by veterans of Türkiye’s 1974 Peace Operation in Cyprus.
Yılmaz, who spoke after watching a parade on Dr. Fazıl Küçük Boulevard in Lefkoşa, said that the foundation of the TRNC was the most concrete sign of the Turkish Cypriot people’s struggle for sovereignty and freedom. He recalled remarks by founding President Rauf Denktaş, who told an excited crowd outside the TRNC Parliament after the declaration of state: “This achievement belongs to all of you,” before quoting Turkish youth marchers: “The mountaintop is covered with mist but let us march forward, friends!”
Yılmaz said Turkish Cypriots sustained a noble struggle for freedom and proved to the world that they would not give up their homeland. Yılmaz paid tributes to Denktaş and Küçük, as well as Turkish leaders who contributed to the Turkish Cypriot cause, including Prime Minister Adnan Menderes and his Foreign Minister Fatin Rüştü Zorlu, Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit and Deputy Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, who were at the forefront of efforts for the Turkish Cypriot struggle in the 20th century.
Yılmaz emphasized that the Cyprus issue is a national cause for Türkiye, saying that there would be no return to negotiation models that had failed to produce results in the past.
“As our president has repeatedly stated, the Cyprus cause is a national issue for us that transcends all political calculations. I would particularly like to emphasize that we never regard a lack of solution as a solution in this sacred cause. In light of historical realities and the current situation on the ground, our position on the Cyprus issue and our vision for the future are extremely clear and unequivocal. The fact that there are two separate peoples and two separate states on the island must now be recognized by the entire world,” Yılmaz said.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan echoed Yılmaz’s remarks in a statement issued on the occasion. He pledged continued support by “motherland and guarantor” Türkiye to the TRNC, saying they would continue mobilizing to ensure the TRNC reaches “where it deserves to be in the international community.”
Criticizing negotiations conducted on the basis of a federal solution, Yılmaz said: “It is evident that models that have been tried repeatedly and thwarted each time through various maneuvers have brought nothing but a waste of time and energy. In light of this reality, we call on all states, particularly our friends and brothers, to recognize the TRNC and establish political, diplomatic and economic relations with it. We reiterate that the sovereign equality and equal international status of the Turkish Cypriot people must be recognized and that the inhumane isolation imposed on them must end immediately.”
Earlier this month, Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders agreed to open two new crossing points during the last round of U.N.-brokered talks in Lefkoşa, marking a step toward improving cooperation between the two communities. Erhürman and Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides reached the agreement during a trilateral meeting mediated by Maria Angela Holguin Cuellar, the U.N. secretary-general's personal envoy for Cyprus.
Yet, the talks to determine a final status for the island remain inconclusive, with Greek Cypriots, already enjoying recognition, apparently reluctant to accept sovereignty of the Turkish Cypriot side.
Reacting to the Greek Cypriot side's stance, Yılmaz said: “The main reason the Cyprus issue remains unresolved today is that the Greek Cypriot side does not want to share political power and economic prosperity with the Turkish Cypriots. The Greek Cypriot side's understanding of a solution goes no further than reducing Turkish Cypriots to the status of a minority. A major factor behind this uncompromising stance was the European Union's decision in 2004 to admit the Greek Cypriot administration as a member on the mistaken assumption that it represented the entire island, despite the Greek Cypriots having rejected the Annan Plan. The comfort zone afforded to the Greek Cypriot side by these erroneous decisions of the past has led to the Turkish Cypriots suffering an endless denial of their rights in their own homeland, while promises to rectify these injustices have unfortunately remained unfulfilled.” Referring to the negotiations that ended without an agreement in Crans-Montana in 2017, Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz said: “Following the collapse of the federal negotiations after the Greek Cypriot side walked away from the table at Crans-Montana, we clearly declared that we would no longer return to negotiations that had continued for half a century without producing any results. We remain just as determined today in maintaining our principled stance and closing the door to open-ended processes conducted merely for the sake of appearances.”
Stating that Türkiye wants the Turkish Cypriot side's willingness to reach a solution to be reciprocated, Yılmaz underlined the importance of mutual trust and cooperation to ensure that the two peoples and two states on the island can live side by side in peace.
Noting that Türkiye had supported the process launched by the U.N. secretary-general in 2025, together with the Turkish Cypriot side, Yılmaz said: “However, the Greek Cypriot side's continued uncompromising stance remains the biggest obstacle to achieving meaningful progress in this regard.”
That “uncompromising stance” was reflected in Saturday’s protests on the Greek Cypriot side of the island. Demonstrators gathered to protest Republic Day burned Turkish and Turkish Cypriots flags. TRNC Prime Minister Ünal Üstel condemned the act, “an attack on the honor of the Turkish nation.”
Groups, including the far-right National Popular Front (ELAM), staged demonstrations in several cities in Southern Cyprus against the TRNC's 43rd anniversary, displaying Greek and Byzantine flags and burning Turkish and TRNC flags.
Greek Cypriot protesters chanted "Death to Turks, Cyprus is Greek" and attempted to march toward the TRNC border, but were prevented from doing so by Greek Cypriot police.
In a first, the Greek Cypriot administration's Education Ministry issued a circular to schools instructing them not to mark students absent from classes if they took part in the demonstrations.
