Military history of Cyprus

British minister and Cypriot deputy minister to the President posted photos with the Cypriot flag hanging upside down

In a speech on Monday Turkey's President Erdogan not only defended the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, but went even further, stating that if Turkish troops hadn't stopped then all of Cyprus would be Turkish today.

Greek diplomatic sources have reacted to remarks made by the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan regarding Cyprus.

In a speech he delivered to Turkish military personnel at a dinner Monday, Erdogan not only defended the Turkish invasion of Cyprus but went even further by arguing that if Turkish forces had moved further south in 1974, then Cyprus might be all Turkish today.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a speech he delivered to Turkish military personnel at a dinner Monday, not only defended the Turkish invasion of Cyprus but went even further by arguing that if Turkish forces had moved further south in 1974, then Cyprus might be all Turkish today

More specifically, Erdogan said:

Decades on from the ethnic division of Cyprus, tensions persist along the 180-kilometer buffer zone separating breakaway Turkish Cypriots from Greek Cypriots in the internationally recognized south, the head of the United Nations peacekeeping force on the island said Monday.

Northern Cyprus will not sit at any negotiating table unless their sovereignty and equal status is recognized, Turkish Cypriot President Ersin Tatar has told AFP.

Greek-Turkish relations are going through a positive period, but it remains to be seen how long this can last, according to a high-ranking Turkish diplomat who spoke to Kathimerini at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum on Saturday.

Evangelos Savva, the Ambassador of Cyprus to the United States, joins Thanos Davelis to discuss how Cyprus has moved from being viewed solely as a problem to becoming part of the solution to key regional challenges, and look at whether the country's growing regional relevance can help solve the Cyprus problem.

The Cyprus problem and the prospect of resuming reunification talks was one of the issues that dominated Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis' meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York on Monday.

A senior U.N. envoy with a special task on reporting about whether there is ground for a new initiative to resolve the decades-old Cyprus problem has held talks with senior Turkish officials in Ankara, including Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.