The Turkish president accuses Greece of wanting to determine its personal naval base in Cyprus.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Turkey is able to construct a naval base in Cyprus, half a century after its forces invaded the now-divided island.
“If mandatory, we are able to construct a base and naval constructions within the north” of Cyprus, the chief was quoted as saying by the official Turkish information company Anadolu on Sunday.
Erdogan stated he had returned to Turkey after visiting northern Cyprus on Saturday to mark 50 years for the reason that Turkish invasion. He additionally accused rival Greece of wanting to determine a naval base of its personal in Cyprus, over whose future the 2 sides stay as divided as ever.
Cyprus gained independence from Britain in 1960, however shared administration between Greek and Turkish Cypriots shortly collapsed following violence that compelled Turkish Cypriots to retreat into enclaves and the dispatch of a United Nations peacekeeping drive.
In 1974, Turkey captured greater than a 3rd of the island and expelled greater than 160,000 Greek Cypriots to the south.
Since then, Cyprus has been divided alongside ethnic traces, with Greek and Turkish Cypriots dwelling on both aspect of a UN-patrolled border.
In 1983, Turkey established what it calls the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a breakaway state acknowledged solely by Turkey.
On Saturday, Erdogan attended a navy parade in northern Nicosia to mark the day in 1974 when Turkey launched its offensive.
As Greek Cypriots mourned these killed and nonetheless lacking since their expulsion in 1974, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides stated Saturday that reunification was the one possibility.
A divided Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004 when Greek Cypriots overwhelmingly rejected a UN plan to finish their variations with Turkish Cypriots.
However throughout the U.N.-patrolled buffer zone separating the 2 communities, Erdogan on Saturday rejected the federal mannequin advocated by the U.N., saying he noticed no level in relaunching talks on such a plan.
“Frankly, we don’t consider that it’s potential to begin a brand new negotiation course of with out establishing an equation by which each events sit on equal phrases and depart the desk on equal phrases,” he stated.
The final spherical of UN-backed talks to reunify the island failed in 2017.
“We’re constructing the Northern Cyprus presidential constructing and the parliament constructing on the island. They’re constructing a navy base, we’re constructing a political base,” Erdogan stated.
He additionally praised the “valuable” presence of the chief of Turkey’s major opposition get together, the Republican Individuals’s Celebration (CHP), Ozgur Ozel, throughout Saturday’s go to, saying it demonstrated the “unity” of the Turkish folks relating to Cyprus.
