Erdoğan made his first trip abroad to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is recognized only by Turkey.
President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan demands the international community to recognize the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
On Monday, President Erdoğan visited the Turkish Republic on his first trip abroad after the successful presidential election at the end of May.
According to Erdoğan, the only way to resolve the division of Cyprus is to recognize the independence of Northern Cyprus.
Cyprus has been divided into the internationally recognized Greek-majority republic and the Turkish region of the northern part of the island for almost 50 years.
Turkey occupied the northern part of Cyprus in 1974 after a Greek-backed coup attempt. The goal of the coup d’état was to unite Cyprus with Greece.
Turkey has 35,000 soldiers on the island
Negotiations for the reunification of Cyprus have not yielded results. In 1983, a republic was established in the territory controlled by Turkey, which only Turkey has recognized.
Turkey has around 35,000 soldiers in the northern part of the island and thousands of people from mainland Turkey have moved to the area. Northern Cyprus is economically dependent on Turkey and has suffered due to Turkey’s economic crisis.
In 2004, a referendum was organized in Cyprus, in which the Turks accepted the UN Secretary General at the time Kofi Annan outlined by the peace plan. However, the Greeks rejected the plan, which would have meant the creation of a new federal state.
The latest attempt to find a solution to the division of the island collapsed, among other things, in border demarcation disputes in 2017. At that time, Turkey demanded that it be allowed to keep its troops on the island even after the peace agreement was approved.
Sources: Reuters, AP
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