‘Turkey would have pulled out of Cyprus’ if 2016 coup had succeeded

“Turkey would have pulled out of Cyprus” if the attempted coup d’état which was performed in the country in 2016 had succeeded, Turkish ambassador in northern Nicosia Metin Feyzioglu said on Monday.

Speaking on television to the north’s public broadcaster BRT, he asked, “if the Gulen movement had succeeded on July 15 and had been able to take over the country’s administration, what would have happened first in Turkey and then in North Cyprus?”

“Peace talks with the Kurdistan Workers Party would have started in Turkey, and they would have pulled out of Cyprus,” he said.

“They would have said, ‘what are we doing in the north of Cyprus? Let’s pull out of here. Is there any need for guarantees in this era any more? Guarantees are outdated’,” he added.

He went on to clarify that “what I just said was in quotation marks”, and then added, “and I am saying in quotation marks again, ‘the Republic of Cyprus is already in the European Union, there is no greater guarantee than that’, they would say.”

“But which EU? We are talking about the EU which does not lift a finger while the slaughter in Gaza is continuing unabated. I am talking about the structure of which the current members did not lift a finger while the Turkish Cypriots were subjected to genocide between 1963 and 1974,” he said.

He then warned that his words “could be distorted”, adding “you know the fifth column activities. I have been a target of the Gulen movement for years and worn it like a medal.

“The statements I will make now could also be distorted by them. They could distort this broadcast as well.”

Earlier, Feyzioglu had attended a commemorative ceremony alongside Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar and other Turkish Cypriot dignitaries at the cemetery for fallen Turkish soldiers in the Kyrenia district village of Bogazi.

There, he described the Gulen movement as a “treacherous terrorist organisation” and an “espionage organisation which works insidiously for its dark goals”, while saying there are “known puppeteers” behind the movement which aim to “make Turkey captive.”

Tatar had said “the insidious terrorist organisation had infiltrated the state … through a parallel structure”.

“Statements came from south Cyprus that evening saying, ‘if the coup attempt had been successful, we would have been able to fly our flag in Kyrenia’. Those in the south were also praying for the coup attempt to be successful,” he said.