Turkey Responds to Security Council on Cyprus

Turkey rejected the UNSC statement on the Maras initiative, which supports the partition of Cyprus and its projects to reopen an abandoned coastal city in the northern part of the Mediterranean island since the Turkish invasion in 1974.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry released a statement today, Friday, saying: We reject the Presidential Statement by the UN Security Council on the second phase of the Maras initiative, announced by the President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), H.E. Mr. Ersin Tatar, on 20 July 2021, as well as the statements from various countries which are based on unfounded claims and inconsistent with the realities on the Island." 

The island was divided since the Turkish invasion of its northern part in 1974. The Republic of Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004, whose gains are limited to the southern part of the island, where Greek Cypriots live, and is ruled by an authority recognized by the United Nations. In the north, only Ankara recognizes the TRNC.

The reopening of the coastal city of Varosha, whose residents fled in 1974 and which the Turkish army besieged with barbed wire, is where the Greek Cypriot government draws the line. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said that his country seeks to guarantee international recognition of the TRNC.

US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland, had ruled out Erdogan's proposal for two states, saying, “we think only a Cypriot-led process – bizonal, bicommunal – will bring peace and stability in Cyprus".