Turkey, Northern Cyprus Work Closely With UN To Promote Peace On Island

Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus have been working closely with the UN for decades to promote the lasting peace on the island, Turkey’s communications director said on Monday.

“It’s time to pursue a two-state solution,” Fahrettin Altun said on Twitter.

Altun noted that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Cyprus on the 47th anniversary of the Cyprus Peace Operation.

He also posted a video, titled Cyprus issue from past to present: Two state solution, on Twitter.

Every year the TRNC celebrates July 20 as its Peace and Freedom Day to mark the operation – a large-scale military intervention to protect Turkish Cypriots from violence that struck the island in 1974.

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

In the early 1960s, ethnic attacks forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety.

In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aiming at Greece’s annexation led to Turkey’s military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence.

The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was founded in 1983.

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

The Greek Cypriot administration entered the European Union in 2004, the same year that Greek Cypriots thwarted the UN’s Annan plan to end the decades-long dispute.