Ersin Tatar has been the self-appointed President of the Northern Turkish Republic for nine months. Cyprus And, like his predecessor, he found little change.
Embargoes, international isolation and political restrictions remain long-standing problems in his unrecognized country. Even today, nearly 38 years after the declaration of independence in the territory, foreign dignitaries pass through his colonial office and still oppose taking pictures next to the flag on his desk.
“They were afraid that the Greek Cypriots would shut them out,” said the self-proclaimed nationalist, pointing to the Turkish and Turkish Cypriot signs on either side of Kemal Ataturk’s portrait behind him. “Our southern friends will do everything possible to prevent us from prospering… Their policy is to stifle us until we give up.”
Nevertheless, Ersin is still very excited.
Before his mentor Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (Recep Tayyip Erdoğan) visited the territory to commemorate the Turkish invasion in 1974-he claimed that this was a “peace operation” that made his people Freedom from “some kind of extinction”-he seems to be going well. “in Turkey He was treated like a pop star,” an assistant revealed. “People walked up to him in the street. he likes. “
The 60-year-old Cambridge University politician attributed his public enthusiasm to Erdogan himself. He insisted that Ankara not only supported small countries during some “difficult and lonely” times; after years of failed peace negotiations to unite the Mediterranean islands into a bi-regional, bi-ethnic federation, the Turkish president accepted him from the beginning. The two countries’ proposal to resolve the Cyprus problem.
“people think that [he] Instruct me to abide by his policies. that is not true. I am the one who persuaded Erdogan that after all these federal opportunities have been exhausted, we should adopt this two-state solution,” he told the Guardian, downplaying the EU’s refusal to discuss such a solution.
“He supported me and was very happy to do so, because Turkish public opinion has bought it… For 85 million Turks, Cyprus is a very important national issue. I have always said that the only way to achieve a realistic solution is two Country solutions.”
He said that the Turkish Cypriots would like to thank not only the military intervention in 1974 to protect the homeland of ethnic minorities — after the Athens-inspired coup d’état aimed at uniting Greece — but also a protector who also Provided them with approximately 300 million U.S. dollars each year. To this day, Turkey is the only country that recognizes this entity.
“We obviously have people like Mustafa Akinci [his moderate predecessor] People who think differently but they don’t have power,” said the Tatar. “I’m in power now…I am the president of Turkish Cypriots across Turkey, Britain, Canada, and Australia. “
The invasion caused the Turkish army to occupy 37% of Cyprus in the name of 18% of the population at the time. Since these two communities were forced to live on both sides of the ceasefire line patrolled by the United Nations, this now symbolizes the inability of mediators to resolve the longest-lasting diplomatic dispute in the West. At the height of the conflict, approximately 250,000 Greek Cypriots were forced to leave their homes and were pushed into the now internationally recognized southern region.
In the history of the Separated Republic, no election has been so controversial as the election where the Tatars got only 4,000 more votes than the left-wing Akinchi, who has been his own supporter for a long time. Strong opponents of the policy that have been worried that it will lead to the annexation of the North are led by Turkey.
The Turkish Cypriots opposed a solution that would close the island forever, claiming that without Ankara openly intervening in preparations for the October polls, the conservative National Unity Party leader would never win. After months of investigation by lawyers, academics, activists and researchers, a recently released report concluded that the ballot was riddled with irregularities, including voting bribery and threats to Akinci, his family and close associates.
“The election of the Tatars is put on a plate,” said Mine Atli, a Turkish Cypriot lawyer, one of the authors of the report. “The Turkish Embassy is [northern] Nicosia became the campaign headquarters. The Tatars are just puppets of the Erdogan government…We are the real masters of this island, not them, so we will determine its future. “
When celebrating the 47th anniversary of the peak on Tuesday, Erdogan is expected to visit the ghost town of Varosha-a Greek enclave that has not been affected, but Ankara’s controversial decision to reopen before the elections is also believed to have affected Voted. As with this visit, the move to include Varosha on the tour was ridiculed as a gimmick designed to please domestic nationalists when the strongman faced domestic problems. “He will use Cyprus, just like Margaret Thatcher used the Falkland Islands,” said Atley, who grew up in England.
When Erdogan addressed lawmakers on Monday, opposition lawmakers boycotted the parliament and expressed their opposition. Many people were shocked by Erdogan’s authoritarianism.
For the Turkish Cypriots who support unification under the roof of the shared federation and took to the streets to protest the spread of Islamization in the territory, the soft-spoken Tatars are their worst nightmare. Many people applied for a passport of the Republic of Cyprus-issued by the South-and fled, leaving the North to become the residence of socially conservative settlers from Anatolia.
The EU is paying close attention to this visit. But even though European Commission President Ursula von der Lein stated that the EU “never” would accept a solution that would legalize the permanent division of member states, the Turkish Cypriot leader did not appear to be disturbed.
He said that if there is no solution, relations with Turkey will inevitably deepen, even if he cherishes the idea that his people will one day join Europe.
“I want to go to Europe. Turkey did not tell me that there is no such policy… But unless we recognize the reality on the island, we will not reach an agreement and the status quo will prevail,” he said. “Turkish Cypriots will remain in a state of embargo and isolation, restricted and not recognized countries…but we will make adjustments accordingly.”
