President Ersin Tatar meets with Cyprus Turkish Cultural Association officials and members in İstanbul
"The Cyprus Turkish Cultural Association had played an important role in raising awareness among the public in Türkiye with regards to defending the Island of Cyprus."
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President Ersin Tatar paid a visit to the Cyprus Turkish Cultural Association as part of his contacts in İstanbul, where he met with the officials and members of the Association.
Adressing the members of the Association, Presient Tatar stated that he has many memories of the İstanbul Cyprus Turkish Cultural Association, of which he was chairman for many years. President Tatar also paid tribute to Prof. Dr. Derviş Manizade, who was a founding member of the Association in 1946 whom he said "carried out very important work in raising awareness of plight of the Turkish Cypriot People and the dire situation at the time in Cyprus".
Recounting the names of all those who chaired and managed the Association and wishing God's mercy to those who have passed away, President Tatar stressed that all the officials and members of the Association "were instrumental in the national struggle of the Turkish Cypriot people".
President Ersin Tatar pointed out that the Association hosted very important events and meetings, as well as playing an important role in raising awareness and forming public opinion in Türkiye with regards to the Turkish Cypriot struggle, and that the events held there, especially prior to 1974, acted as a "guide" to the governments of the Republic of Türkiye in that period.
President Tatar explained that the messages from Dr. Fazıl Küçük and Rauf Raif Denktaş were conveyed to the appropriate authorities via this platform. He also recalled that many Turkish Cypriot students, who were in İstanbul to study, had a series of sacrifices, and had suspended their studies abroad and returned to the Island where they participated in the Erenköy resistance, where some of them were martyred.
President Tatar also touched upon other works carried out by the Association from past to present, which he said was "instrumental and significant in terms of ensuring that the Turkish Cypriots lived as an independent and free People".
President Tatar added: " The Association played a pivotal role in our national struggle, working day and night, even organising prayer sessions during the 1974 Cyprus Peace Operation.”
Referring to the Cyprus issue, President Tatar stated that he is putting forward a new vision and position for a settlement that is based on the sovereign equality and equal international status of the Turkish Cypriot People.
"The Turkish Cypriot People want to co-exist as good neighbours in a cooperative relationship. Negotiations for a federal based solution have been tried, failed and exhausted," President Tatar said.
Pointing out that in a federation, the "majority would rule the minority and that over time the Greek-Greek Cypriot duo would be able to spread their sovereignty to Northern Cyprus," President Tatar stressed that with the "unilateral admission of the Greek Cypriot side as a member state to the European Union, the guarantee of the Republic of Türkiye could be abolished and Turkish security forces would have to withdraw from the island".
Explaining that the Ottomans had ruled the Island for 358 years, the President stated that Cyprus had at the end of this period come under the rule of the British administration. He it was then that there was a transfer of significant numbers of people of Greek origin to the Island, which bolstered their numbers, whilst Turkish Cypriots emigrated to Anatolia.
The President said: "Despite the Republic of Cyprus being established as a partnership state between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots in 1960, the Turkish Cypriots were expelled from the state apparatus by force of arms and were attacked island-wide for 11 years as part of the aspiration to unite Cyprus with Greece (ENOSIS)."
"The UK retained two Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus when withdrawing from the island and granting her independence which they continue to use as they please," President Tatar said. "However, it is a great injustice to say that the Greek Cypriots, who are the perpetrators that started the Cyprus issue in 1963 by expelling our people from the partnership state and attacked our people for ENOSIS, are the sole government of the Island and are sovereign, but that the Turkish Cypriots are not. The Turkish Cypriots have equal inherent rights and are as sovereign as that of the Greek Cypriot Side," President Tatar said. President Tatar stated that the Turkish Cypriot Side have always supported a settlement, but that the Greek Cypriot Side rejected federal settlement plans, the last being the Annan Plan of 2004 and in Crans-Montana in 2017, thereby exhausting this basis.
Stating that the Turkish Cypriot Side wants a solution based on cooperation between two separate equal sovereign States, President Tatar said that the new policy is fully supported by Türkiye, and that new and formal negotiations can be started when the sovereign equality and equal international status of the Turkish Cypriots has been reaffirmed.