FM: Turkey fully supports two-state solution in Cyprus

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said yesterday that Ankara fully supports the two-state solution to end the dispute over the island of Cyprus.

“We fully support the Turkish Cypriots’ vision, which is based on equal sovereignty,” Cavusoglu wrote on Twitter.

The Turkish official was commenting on the 5 + 1 group meeting taking place in Geneva between 27-29 April, under UN auspices. The talks hope to bring an end to the dispute on the territory.

Kıbrıs Türkünün haklarını, egemen eşitliğini ve milli davamızı savunmak için #Cenevre’deyiz.🇹🇷

In #Geneva to defend the rights of the Turkish Cypriots, their sovereign equality and our national cause.🇹🇷 pic.twitter.com/M0F8lPNhOn

— Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu (@MevlutCavusoglu) April 27, 2021

He added that the participating delegations have discussed the difficulties that make the federal solution on the island impossible.

The 5 + 1 group consists of the three guarantor countries; Greece, Turkey and Britain as well as the Turkish and the Greek Cypriots, in addition to the United Nations.

Since the collapse of the UN-sponsored Cyprus reunification talks in Switzerland in July 2017, no formal UN-brokered negotiations have taken place to settle the island’s dispute.

Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the UN to achieve a comprehensive settlement.

The island has been divided since 1964, when ethnic attacks forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety.

In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece’s annexation led to Turkey’s military intervention as a guarantor power. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was founded in 1983.

The Greek Cypriot administration, backed by Greece, became a member of the European Union in 2004, although most Greek Cypriots rejected a UN settlement plan in a referendum that year which had envisaged a reunited Cyprus joining the EU.

READ: Turkey criticises ban on Quran courses in Northern Cyprus