Tatar condemns Nicosia’s reaction to north’s participation in OTS summit

Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar condemned on Sunday reactions by Cyprus and the EU, who said they made demarches following the north’s participation in a conference of the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS).

According to Tatar, he is “proud” to represent the north and have their ‘flag’ at the OTS summit.

He reiterated that his policy currently, with Turkey’s support, is that if there is an agreement in Cyprus, it will be between “two sovereign, equal states” and said that he explained this to the participants in the summit.

In statements on his return to the north, via Istanbul, Tatar thanked Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev several times for his hospitality and support, as well as the Turkish officials who were at the summit.

“Southern Cyprus, which for 61 years has been pursuing all kinds of oppressive policies aimed at crushing Turkish Cypriots, will oppose us even breathing. After this successful summit, the Greek Cypriot leader of southern Cyprus immediately made a statement and according to this statement it was not right for the ‘autonomous Turkish Cypriot state’ to participate in this summit and unfortunately, some EU officials made similar statements to the Greek Cypriot side, also saying that they did not want the ‘autonomous Turkish Cypriot people’ to participate in this summit,” he said, condemning these statements.

He added that he was disappointed by this behaviour of the Greek Cypriot side, who is against every step taken by Turkish Cypriots “to force them to accept a solution by making them bow down through isolation”.