2 yıl önce

Erdogan: Northern Cyprus needs to be protected from all sides

Asked whether there is a plan to set up a Turkish military base in the northeastern Karpas peninsula in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Erdogan said Turkish drones may also be sent to the region.

AA

President Erdogan was speaking to reporters on his way back from the European Political Community Summit in Prague.

Turkish unarmed aerial vehicles and combat drones are in Northern Cyprus to protect it from all sides, the Turkish president has said.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan was speaking to reporters on his way back from the first European Political Community Summit in Prague on Thursday.

"Because we need to secure Northern Cyprus from all sides, from all aspects. Whether it (the base) is (set up) or not, our jets will immediately be in Northern Cyprus as soon as they take off from our mainland," he added.

Decades-long dispute

Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Turkish Cypriots and Greek 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 Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus 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 that Greek Cypriots single-handedly blocked a UN plan to end the longstanding dispute.

SOURCE: AA