The Organisation of Turkic States’ (OTS) council of elders is to meet in northern Cyprus, according to reports in Turkey.

The council, which comprises representatives of the governments of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan, with a representative of Hungary also occasionally participating as an observer, will reportedly convene in the north at the beginning of May.

If held, the meeting will be the council of elders’ 17th since its establishment in 2010. The council is currently chaired by former Turkish prime minister Binali Yildirim. Its last meeting took place in Budapest in November.

The council’s convening will likely coincide with the official opening of Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar’s new official residence and the north’s new ‘parliament’ building near Ayios Dhometios, which is set to take place on May 3.

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The ceremony is set to be attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The reports come after three of the five countries represented on the council of elders, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, as well as fellow OTS member Turkmenistan and Tajikistan signed a joint declaration with the European Union which ruled out the prospect of any of them recognising the north as an independent country.

The joint declaration, signed in the Uzbek city of Samarkand earlier this month, said all five countries “reaffirmed our strong commitment” to United Nations security council resolutions 541 and 550.

Resolution 541 said the security council “deplores the declaration of the Turkish Cypriot authorities of the purported secession of part of the Republic of Cyprus” while calling on UN member states not to recognise the north.

Resolution 550 said it “reiterates the call upon all states not to recognise the purported state of the ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’, set up by secessionist acts, and calls upon them not to facilitate or in any way assist the aforesaid secessionist entity”.

That news generated a fierce backlash across Turkey’s opposition, with Ozgur Ozel, the leader of Turkey’s largest opposition political party the CHP, decrying the “bankruptcy” of the country’s foreign policy during a rally in the central province of Yozgat on Saturday.

“I am clearly stating that the government’s foreign policy … has gone bankrupt in the period we are in. I ask, how did you bring things to this point? You established the OTS, so how come those we have been waiting on for years to recognise the TRNC now recognise southern Cyprus? We will never remain silent in the face of this great disaster.”

Earlier, Ankara mayor Mansur Yavas, also of the CHP, criticised Turkey’s government’s “silence” over the matter and saying it  “created an image of weakness in our foreign policy”.

Last week, Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar had called on central Asian Turkic states to “be more careful”, amid a wave of anger in Turkey in the wake of the joint declaration’s signing.

He had added that it was possible that the signatories had “overlooked” the articles of the joint declaration which precluded recognition of the north.

“Do they know where the outcome of these articles will lead and what consequences they will have, and for whom?”