EC slams move for ‘TRNC’ to be given observer status in Turkic States organisation (updated)

The European Commission on Saturday announced it rejected moves by Turkey to have the ‘TRNC’ included as an observer at the summit meeting of the Organisation of Turkic States.

“This decision, pending ratification of organisation’s members, is regrettable and contradicts the fact that several members of the organisation expressed strong support to the principle of territorial integrity and the UN Charter,” a commission statement said.

“The EU has made it repeatedly clear, including at highest political level, that the EU recognises only the Republic of Cyprus as a subject of international law, in accordance with the respective UN Security Council Resolutions.

“Any action to facilitate or assist in any way the international recognition of the Turkish Cypriot secessionist entity severely damages efforts to create an environment conducive to resuming settlement talks under the auspices of the United Nations.”

Also on Saturday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said “it would be wrong to view the observer status as a recognition” however hoped “the historic decision would be beneficial to all.”

He noted the case of the north was more challenging than Kosovo “but we will do our best and get to work. I believe that we will have the opportunity to make the world recognise north Cyprus.”

The organisation consists of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Uzbekistan.

As its summit kicked off in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu praised the development on Twitter saying “step by step, we’ll get there.” In the north, ‘foreign minister’ Tahsin Ertugruloglu called it a “historic development.”

“This confirms that the new vision for the ‘TRNC’ for Cyprus based on two states, is correct realistic and in agreement with the regional and international context,” Ertugruloglu said.

Cyprus’ foreign ministry said the move was “meaningless” and merely playing with words.

In a statement, it said other member states of the organisation had refused to accept an unrecognised state as an observer whereupon Turkey then proposed changing the statute to include ‘entities’.

“The fact that Turkey itself promoted and chose to accept the downgrading of the participation of the pseudo-state to the status of ‘entity’ and not ‘state’, proves the obvious,” the ministry said.