Fifty years later, nothing has changed. As Cyprus commemorated on Saturday the anniversary of the 1974 Turkish invasion, which displaced 40% of the population and split the island into two, reunification is still a long way off. On the one hand, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides has promised to “do everything possible to liberate and reunify” the island. On the other, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has rejected the prospect of new UN-brokered negotiations for reunification.
The Turkish president, present on Saturday in the northern part of the island to attend a military parade, considered that “the Turkish Cypriot side should sit down with the Greek Cypriot side on an equal footing”, with a view to “a lasting peace and a solution”. On the return plane, the tone became even firmer. “If necessary, we can build a base and naval structures in the North. We also have the sea” Erdogan stressed, accusing Greece of wanting to establish such a base on the island.
“We are building the Northern Cyprus Presidency building and the Parliament building on the island. They are building a military base, we are building a political base,” he added. Finally, he welcomed the “valuable” presence of the opposition in Nicosia on Saturday, represented by the chairman of the CHP, the first parliamentary opposition party in Turkey, Özgür Özel, at the official podium. “I find the image of unity that we have given as government and opposition valuable. It has shown that the cause of Cyprus is not only ours, but that of 85 million people,” the entire Turkish population.
