Statement by H.E. Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu, Foreign Minister of the TRNC, regarding the participation of Greek Cypriot leader Christodoulides in the 75th anniversary event of the vote held in 1950 for the unification of Cyprus with Greece
Greek Cypriot leader Christodoulides spoke at an event organized to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the plebiscite (public vote) held in 1950 concerning the unification of Cyprus with Greece (Enosis).
As evident, the Greek Cypriot people, leadership, and the Church remain committed to the idea of Enosis and the notion of unification with Greece remains a cause for celebration among them. I suggest that those who still believe that an agreement in Cyprus will be reached based on “federation”, as well as those who choose to trust the Greek Cypriot side’s rhetoric on “federation,” take a closer look at the photographs published from this event.
With the support of the international community, the Greek Cypriot leadership is afforded the comfort of playing for time by pretending to defend the notion of so-called “federation”. On the other hand, the international community, which treats the Greek Cypriot side as if it were the “Republic of Cyprus,” is trying to exert pressure on the Turkish Cypriot side to reach an agreement on the Cyprus issue.
It is difficult to understand why international powers negatively reacted when the Turkish Cypriot side asserted that the Cyprus issue could not be resolved within the current UN framework, while never even considering to put pressure on the Greek Cypriot people after they overwhelmingly rejected the United Nations parameters supported by the global community in 2004, opting to reward them instead.
It is time for those who unlawfully treat the “Republic of Cyprus,” which lost its legitimacy in 1963, as the legal representative of the entire island, while claiming to support a solution to the Cyprus issue, to abandon the dilemma they have created and acknowledge the truth.
As a result of the unilateral admission of the Greek Cypriot side into the European Union in 2004 before an agreement on Cyprus was reached, the Greek Cypriot administration of Southern Cyprus has, in a sense, already achieved a form of union with Greece.
The Greek Cypriot side has absolutely no desire to reach a compromise with the Turkish Cypriot side. It is utterly naïve to think that the Greek Cypriot leadership, who have been granted the comfort of representing an internationally recognized state, will agree to a “federal” basis.
It is my sincerest hope that the international community immediately reverse its mistake and stop prescribing the wrong remedy to the misdiagnosed Cyprus issue. The future of Cyprus will be based on two sovereign equal States.
