President Ersin Tatar has stated that the Turkish Cypriot People will not abandon their State and sovereignty – in his written message which commemorated April 23, National Sovereignty and Children’s Day.

The national holiday is celebrated annually in the TRNC and the Republic of Türkiye, which was declared a public holiday following the inauguration of the Turkish Grand National Assembly by the founder of the Republic of Türkiye, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, on April 23, 1920.

The written statement of President Ersin Tatar reads as follows:

"We are once again celebrating with joy and excitement the April 23, National Sovereignty and Children's Day, which is the gift of our Great Leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk to the children of the world. However, we are this year commemorating this day with the pain of having lost so many lives, the children of our champion angels and our citizens, in the devastating earthquakes that occurred in the Republic of Türkiye in February. We shall never forget them, and they shall forever live on in our hearts. May they rest in peace.

This holiday is a gift to all children, and I once again wish to express my heartfelt sadness for the loss of our children in the champion angels volleyball team and our citizens whose lives were lost. I commemorate them all with love and longing.

The Turkish Cypriot people have been empowered and inspired by the principles and revolutions of Atatürk, and have struggled against all kinds of attacks and oppression, and defended our sovereignty and freedom whilst preserving our national identity, and our children have also been martyred in Cyprus for this cause.

If we live free and sovereign together with our children in our own homeland, in our own State, we owe this to the epic struggle of our people, to our saintly martyrs and to Motherland Türkiye who has always stood in solidarity with the Turkish Cypriot People.

We will never give up our State and sovereignty, which is the future and security of our children. This is our greatest duty to our children.

While fulfilling this duty, it is not possible for us to accept a solution based on a federal basis that aims to abolish the guarantee of Türkiye, remove Turkish forces from the island of Cyprus, and to turn our people into a minority of the Greek Cypriots and in doing so making our children the slaves of the Greek Cypriots.

Our goal and our efforts are for a realistic, viable, fair and sustainable agreement in Cyprus. The way to this is through a settlement based on sovereign equality and equal international status, on the basis of two separate Peoples and the existence of two separate States in Cyprus. Cyprus is no longer the old Cyprus, and we are progressing with determination our new policy that is fully supported by Motherland Türkiye.

My aim and greatest duty are to ensure that all our children live under the roof of their own sovereign State in safety and peace, in freedom without fear for a brighter future.

On this meaningful and special anniversary, my simple message to our children is that 'Sovereignty is the honour of a nation’.

I respectfully commemorate our Great Leader, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who said "Sovereignty will never be surrendered," who put forward a great struggle for independence of the Turkish nation together with his comrades. I bow with respect to the martyrs who dies in the great battle for sovereignty and freedom of the Turkish nation. I wish all our children a happy April 23, National Sovereignty and Children's Day and extend my love and well wishes to you.”