ANKARA

The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) has been admitted to the Organization of Turkic States as an observer member, the Turkish foreign minister announced on Friday.

“We are always by the side of #TRNC everywhere,” Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Twitter.

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 was admitted to the EU in 2004, the same year that Greek Cypriots single-handedly blocked a UN plan to end the longstanding dispute.