Tatar says he is not Turkey’s puppet

Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar has always coordinated with Turkey on important issues but is not Ankara’s puppet, he was reported as having said on Monday.

In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, published on Monday, Tatar said he was against the reunification of Cyprus because the Turkish minority would be assimilated by the Greek majority.

Tatar also said Turkey would never withdraw from the island.

He reportedly said that if Turkey hadn’t saved the Turkish Cypriots in 1974, they would not exist on the island today. Tatar said that Turkey has been supporting the Turkish Cypriots since 1571, when the Ottomans conquered Cyprus.

He also refuted claims that he was Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s puppet. Tatar said while he always coordinated with Turkey on important issues he was no puppet.

Tatar reiterated his position for two sovereign states in Cyprus, referring to the two communities as “two different peoples” living on the island, each with a different culture, language and religion.

In a bid to boost the Turkish side’s call for a two-state solution, TRT World, the Turkish state broadcaster’s international programme will on Monday release a documentary on Turkish Cypriots.

The TV channel said that the documentary, Turkish Cypriots Struggle for Survival, aims to shed light on the persecutions the community suffered between the late 1950s and 1974, which the whole world ignored during that period.