President Ersin Tatar participated on Newsday breakfast news programme of BBC World Service radio on the 50th anniversary of the Cyprus Peace Operation.

The programme, which was hosted by James Copnall, was broadcast live on Friday morning.

President Tatar stated that the Turkish Cypriot People were celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Cyprus Peace Operation, “which is an important anniversary for us, because it was a Peace Operation. And I underline the word “peace”.   Türkiye as a guarantor power intervened to protect the Turkish Cypriots, who were on the verge of being exterminated, at a time when our people were being massacred by Greek-Greek Cypriot forces.  This is a well-known fact in history”.

Explaining that the island-wide attacks on the Turkish Cypriot People were staged as part of the aspiration by the Greek side to “unite Cyprus with Greece (ENOSİS)”, the President said that this was also openly stated by Archbishop Makarios at the time.  He explained that the Turkish Cypriot People, who have equal inherent rights, and were expelled from the Republic of Cyprus they co-founded by force of arms.

President Tatar stated that Türkiye had to act as a guarantor power to protect the Turkish Cypriots, after the 1960 established partnership Republic of Cyprus, that had been co-founded by the Turkish Cypriot People and the Greek Cypriot People, was destroyed by the Greek Cypriots.  Explaining that there was a coup d’etat by the Greek Junta and declaration of the Hellenic Republic of Cyprus on July 15, 1974, President Tatar stated that the Cyprus Peace Operation by Türkiye stopped the atrocities and bloodshed.

“Türkiye came in to protect the Turkish Cypriots,” President Tatar said, adding that the Turkish Prime Minister at the time, Bülent Ecevit, had stated that “Türkiye was intervening to bring peace to the Island of Cyprus not only to the Turkish Cypriots, but also to the Greek Cypriots”.

Stating that there were major celebrations being held in the TRNC and in other parts of the world by Turkish Cypriot People, President Tatar said Türkiye was “sending an important message to the world that she is always standing together with the Turkish Cypriot People, who have inherent historical rights in Cyprus, including the entitlement to have a State and the right of self-determination”.

“The British know very well as they have two Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus, that we have as Turkish Cypriots been governing ourselves as a State for more than 60 years.  The TRNC has the legal and moral basis and exists.”   

President Tatar explained that the Greek Cypriot Side “rejected many settlement plans supported by the UN and the international community, the last being the Annan Plan in 2004 and again in Crans-Montana in 2017”.  He said the Turkish Cypriot Side has put forward arduous efforts for a settlement for more than half a century, but that a settlement could not be reached because of the refusal of the internationally recognised Greek Cypriot Side, which has also become a member of the EU, to share governance and the resources of the Island of Cyprus.

The President referred to the statements by Jack Straw, who served as Foreign Secretary of the UK during the Annan Plan period, where he said it was a “great mistake” to allow the Greek Cypriots to accede to the EU prior to a settlement.