Türkiye will continue to fight for fair solution to Cyprus issue: Vice president

ANKARA

Türkiye will continue to fight for a fair solution to the Cyprus issue and support Turkish Cypriots, the country's Vice President Fuat Oktay said on Tuesday.

"As motherland Türkiye, we will continue to support the Turkish Cypriots in every field … with all our institutions and organizations, Oktay said at a news conference with Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Prime Minister Unal Ustel in the capital Ankara.

"Although the international community insists on a deadlock on Cyprus, we will fight for a fair solution as a guarantor country," he added.

Oktay said the Turkish Cypriot side has clearly demonstrated what they want.

"The solution is possible with the registration of the sovereign equality and equal international status of the Turkish Cypriots. We fully support this vision of the TRNC. Unless the acquired rights of the Turkish Cypriots, which were confirmed in 1960 but usurped 3 years later, are registered, the Turkish side will not sit at the negotiating table again," he added.

Türkiye will continue to protect the legitimate rights of Ankara and the TRNC in the Eastern Mediterranean.

For his part, Ustel thanked Türkiye for its continuous support to the TRNC.

"In every field, the motherland Türkiye mobilizes all the means at its disposal and supports all projects for the development of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus," he said.

Ustel said it gives Turkish Cypriots confidence to see that Türkiye continues to support the two-state solution vision.

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 when Greek Cypriots thwarted a UN plan to end the longstanding dispute.