Türkiye’s guarantorship, military presence key to Turkish-Greek balance: TRNC foreign minister

Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Foreign Minister Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu on Wednesday said that Türkiye’s effective guarantorship and its military presence on the island are not only a red line for the Turkish Cypriots but also the strongest guarantee of the Turkish-Greek balance in the Eastern Mediterranean and of regional stability.

Ertuğruloğlu underlined that more than half a century of Cyprus negotiation history has proven to the entire world that the Greek Cypriot side will not change its mindset and will destroy any possible basis for partnership each time in a written statement, according to the Turkish Cypriot News Agency (TAK).

“For this reason, our stance is clear against approaches that seek to make the Turkish Cypriot people pay the price of the lack of a solution through unjust isolations. The only reality on the island is the existence of two separate, sovereign and equal states living side by side,” he further stated.

Ertuğruloğlu said they were pleased that political parties maintain close contact and dialogue with Türkiye and develop their consultations.

“Because our national Cyprus cause and our future are one and shared,” he further said.

“As was seen in the past during the Annan Plan and Crans-Montana processes, the Greek Cypriots’ insistence on ruling the island alone, viewing Turkish Cypriots as a ‘minority’ and demanding ‘zero troops, zero guarantees’ has long since buried federation-based solution models in the dustbin of history,” he added.

Ertuğruloğlu said that seeking the future of the Turkish Cypriot people on federation grounds that have been tried and exhausted many times is not only a futile effort and a waste of time, but also an attempt to weaken the basis of the national Cyprus policy and diminish the status of the Turkish Cypriot people.

“The future of the Turkish Cypriot people has been secured under the roof of their own sovereign state and by walking shoulder to shoulder with the motherland Türkiye. Those who aspire to govern our state, the TRNC, must fully grasp this reality and be sincere with our people,” he noted.

Reacting to the linking of the Cyprus settlement process with Türkiye’s relations with the EU, Ertuğrulogu questioned : “How can a fair approach on behalf of the Turkish Cypriot people be expected from the EU, which has always sided with the Greek Cypriots on the Cyprus issue? And by what logic can the progress of Türkiye’s relations with the EU be tied to developments in Cyprus?”

“We saw this deceptive film in 2004 and experienced it painfully. To those who want to remake and act in the same film, I would like to remind them of the words of our Founding President Rauf Denktas: ‘Without Türkiye, we would not go not only to the EU, but even to heaven.’ We have never trusted the EU, and we do not trust it.”

Mentioning that Türkiye consistently and firmly emphasizes the reality that “a lasting, just and sustainable solution on the island is only possible on the basis of a two-state solution founded on the confirmation of the sovereign equality and equal international status of the Turkish Cypriot people,” Ertuğruloğlu said: “Is it sensible to pin hopes on other dangerous scenarios that are incompatible with the facts?”