ISTANBUL ( WNAM MONITORING ): Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Türkiye will continue to stand firmly by the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) whenever it requires support, as it has done in the past.
“Türkiye will continue to provide strong support in all areas, from strengthening relations with the Turkic world to ending the unjust isolation of Turkish Cypriots,” Erdogan said at the opening ceremony of the TRNC Presidential Complex in Lefkosa.
Erdogan added that the Presidential Complex of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus represents the “manifestation of a state’s will to exist in the face of injustice and illegality.”
He stated that the complex’s construction, which began in 2022, covers 639,475 square meters and includes the presidential palace, the Republic Assembly, the high court, and a public garden.
Decades-long Cyprus problem
Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the UN 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 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 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 UK.
The Greek Cypriot administration entered the EU in 2004, the same year that Greek Cypriots single-handedly blocked a UN plan to end the longstanding dispute.
