'We believe the recognition and respect we witnessed in Khankendi will continue at future meetings,' Ersin Tatar tells Anadolu
The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) racked up significant gains and scored a victory at last week's Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) summit in Azerbaijan, said the nation's president.
"Our high-level participation in the ECO summit is a diplomatic victory," Ersin Tatar told Anadolu on Tuesday.
Noting that during the meeting he met with the leaders of Turkic republics in Asia, as well as the leaders of Pakistan and Iran, Tatar said: "The flag of the TRNC waving in the section where the president of the Republic of Türkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the president of Azerbaijan, llham Aliyev, were seated, and my representation of my country there as its president, is an indication that our status has been elevated. I was pleased by this."
He expressed gratitude to Türkiye and Azerbaijan for preparing a high-level representation space for the TRNC at the summit:
"The member countries of ECO, apart from Türkiye, may not officially recognize us, but our presence there represents new developments and gains for the TRNC. It signifies an elevation in our status … All of this took place in the presence of heads of state," he added.
Tatar also said that, in the past, TRNC officials were often ignored at similar international events, but thanks to support from Türkiye and Azerbaijan, this has changed at recent summits.
"We believe the recognition and respect we witnessed in Khankendi (Azerbaijan) will continue at future meetings. The next summit will be held in Türkiye, and this process will progress to better points for us," he said.
Tatar underlined that Turkish Cypriots have gone through very difficult conditions since the 1960s to achieve first their freedom and then their statehood, and that the TRNC gained important ground at the ECO summit.
He expressed hope that TRNC's acceptance and recognition in the international arena will improve over time.
- Decades-long dispute
Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the UN to achieve a comprehensive settlement.
Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety.
In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece's annexation of the island led to Türkiye's military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence. As a result, the TRNC was founded in 1983.
It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Türkiye, Greece, and the UK.
The Greek Cypriot Administration entered the EU in 2004, the same year Greek Cypriots single-handedly blocked a UN plan to end the longstanding dispute.
