Turkey’s ruling AK Party is “turning a blind eye to the strengthening of the Greek Cypriot administration’s strengthening of its status as a state”, opposition party, the CHP’s deputy leader for financial affairs Ozgur Karabat said.

In a post on social media, he criticised the government’s policy on Cyprus, saying, “the AK Party has ruled Turkey for 23 years yet has not been able to get even one country to recognise the TRNC”.

He said that the party has lost support domestically and is thus “looking for a way to continue its existence in geopolitics”.

“The AK Party, which thinks of itself as a ‘game maker’, does not see that it is actually an extra,” he said, before going on to use Turkey’s relationship with Qatar, and Qatar’s relationship with the Republic of Cyprus, as an example.

“Many countries are working to extract energy resources in the eastern Mediterranean. So, what is Qatar, which the AK Party calls a friend, doing? It is drilling on behalf of the Greek Cypriots!” he began.

He added, “you cannot just say that these are commercial relations, because Qatar is also taking a position against Turkey in the military field and is participating in military exercises with the Greek Cypriots and with Greece!”

On this matter, he referred to the Iniochos military exercises in Greece, which took place in the first week of this month and were joined by Qatar, Israel, France, Poland and other countries.

He then turned his attention to the matter of central Asian countries deciding to open embassies in Nicosia.

“Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan recognised the Greek Cypriot administration as the Republic of Cyprus and appointed ambassadors. Apart from a token reaction, there was no response from the AK Party,” he said.

He added, “in those same days, parliament speaker Numan Kurtulmus visited Uzbekistan and did not say a word about the recognition of the Greek Cypriot administration, because the AK Party is right in the middle of this and is ignoring it”.

He went on to say that Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar “says it clearly, that the European Union wants Turkey to leave Cyprus”.

“Turkey’s guarantorship in Cyprus is being destroyed by the AK Party. Countries with which the AK Party cooperates, such as Qatar, are supporting this,” he added.