Cyprus peace process

Ankara will continue its efforts to secure international recognition for the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), Turkey's president said on July 21.

The Turkish Cypriots, with the participation of a Turkish delegation headed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on July 20 marked the 47th anniversary of the Cyprus Peace Operation launched by the Turkish Armed Forces to bring peace and safety to the island and the Turkish Cypriots who had suffered years of persecution.

Turkey doesn't have "another 50 years to waste" on Cyprus issue, the Turkish president said on Juşy 20, adding that proposals for a peaceful resolution of the issue are still on the table.

On its 47th anniversary, veterans recalled Turkey's Cyprus Peace Operation launched by the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) to bring peace and safety to the island and to the Turkish Cypriots who had suffered from years of persecution. 

Yaşar Gevrek and Ersoy Taluğ as 1974 Cyprus Peace Operation veterans told Anadolu Agency of their experiences and how the operation unfolded.

By George Gilson

Exactly 47 years after Turkey's invasion of Cyprus, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in the Turkish-occupied Cyprus to celebrate the invasion that led to the occupation of 40 percent of the island and the ethnic cleansing of the north, leaving 200,000 Greek Cypriots refugees in their own land.

In efforts to solve the Cyprus dispute, the proper place for the Greek Cypriot administration to address itself is the neighboring Turkish Cypriot state, not Turkey, said the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) presidency on July 17. 

Following recent attempts to relaunch talks aimed to resolve the Cyprus dispute, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has called on the international community to "take a chance," while recalling that Turkish Cyprus has taken a position for a two-state solution in the last meeting in Genova.

Turkish Cypriot President Ersin Tatar called on EU leaders on June 25 to "see the realities" on the island.

"I once again call on them (EU leaders) to see the realities of Cyprus," Tatar told reporters following a meeting with U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres in Brussels.

The president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) urged the international community on June 20 to take action to change the status quo in Cyprus to guarantee the rights of the island's Turkish Cypriots.

Turkish Cypriots are in favor of "the new policy", a two-state solution, on Cyprus as decades of negotiations for a federation failed to resolve the Cyprus issue, said the president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).