President Tatar said: “The pressure exerted on Afzal Khan CBE, MP for Manchester Rusholme, after his visit to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus at my invitation, is yet another stark example of the Greek Cypriot leadership’s primitive and domineering mentality. For an elected parliamentarian to be forced to resign from his role as the United Kingdom’s Trade Envoy to Türkiye simply because he engaged with the Turkish Cypriot people is a shameful affront to democracy and equality.

For decades, the Greek Cypriot leadership has abused its illegitimately held status to isolate the Turkish Cypriot people and to silence our voice in the international arena. If, today, even the simple act of a parliamentarian visiting the TRNC is enough to provoke such hostility, it is clear that the Greek Cypriot leadership has never abandoned its 1963 mentality. This is the reality we face. Those who still believe that the Cyprus issue can be resolved by entrusting the future of our people to the Greek Cypriot side fail to comprehend the gravity of the situation.

For 62 long years, the Turkish Cypriot people have been denied their most basic human rights as a result of this mentality. The unjust and unlawful policy of isolation pursued by the Greek Cypriot leadership constitutes a silent crime against humanity. The international community must no longer turn a blind eye to this injustice; it must finally deliver the justice and equality to which the Turkish Cypriot people are rightfully entitled.

I also call upon the Turkish community in the United Kingdom: Raise your voices against this injustice and stand firmly with Mr Afzal Khan CBE. Supporting Mr Khan means taking a principled stand against the Greek Cypriot leadership’s fascistic and anti-democratic stance. Forcing an elected parliamentarian to resign under threat and pressure, simply because he chose to meet with the democratically elected President of the Turkish Cypriots, is a grave stain on democracy itself.”