ANKARA

A UK lawmaker voiced support for recognizing the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

"There is no reason, that I can see, that the TRNC cannot be accepted by the UN as an independent state," Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MP Sammy Wilson, wrote in an article for the news portal PoliticsHome on Monday.

In the article titled "Cyprus needs its own Good Friday Agreement," Wilson, a Northern Irish politician, compared the situation in Cyprus to that in Ireland in the past.

"The 2010 International Court of Justice decision regarding Kosovo’s independence should grant further legality to the TRNC’s request," he opined.

"If in the future there is a scope for reintegration, an agreement like the Belfast/Good Friday agreement would allow for that," the lawmaker said.

The MP also suggested that the UK could be a mediator nation to broker an agreement between the two sides in Cyprus.

In the article, he stressed the importance of peace as a goal.

Cyprus issue

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

Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety.

In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece's annexation of the island led to Türkiye's military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence. As a result, the TRNC was founded in 1983.

It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Türkiye, Greece, and the UK.

The Greek Cypriot administration entered the EU in 2004, the same year that Greek Cypriots thwarted a UN plan to end the longstanding dispute.

Türkiye fully supports a two-state solution on the island of Cyprus based on sovereign equality and equal international status.

*Writing by Nur Asena Erturk in Ankara