Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday night promised “good news of new investments” during his forthcoming visit to Cyprus this weekend.

Speaking after the evening’s cabinet meeting, he said the aim of his visit to Cyprus is to “inaugurate the completed works” of Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar’s new official residence and the north’s new ‘parliament’ building in Ayios Dhometios on Saturday.

Additionally, he said, he will “share the excitement of the youth at Teknofest”, Turkey’s aerospace technology festival which is set to be hosted at the north’s Ercan (Tymbou) airport this weekend.

“We will also give the Turkish Cypriots the good news of new investments and new projects during the visit,” he said.

Public statements from Erdogan on the matter of Cyprus have been rare in recent weeks, despite intense criticism from Turkey’s opposition over his government’s handling of the Cyprus problem and allegations that he and his affiliates were involved in a corruption scandal linked to the north.

Opposition political party CHP leader Ozgur Ozel had alleged that Erdogan and United States President Donald Trump had struck a deal over the matter which stipulated that the US would not protest over the arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu in exchange for four Turkic states in central Asia ruling out recognising the north as an independent country.

Meanwhile, accusations levelled by Cemil Onal, assassinated Turkish Cypriot businessman Halil Falyali’s former financial director, regarding alleged illicit business dealings have also been a major theme of Turkey’s opposition’s criticism of Erdogan and his AK Party in recent weeks.

The Turkish government denies both accusations and the country’s foreign ministry has promised legal action against those who made the allegations of corruption.

Turkish newspaper Turkiye had reported last week that Erdogan had briefly spoken about the north’s ongoing “headscarf crisis” – a standoff between the ruling coalition and teachers over the former’s legalisation of the wearing of hijabs in public schools and the latter’s refusal to comply – and been scathing of the teachers.

“This is impudence. We will visit the TRNC in the coming days. We will give the necessary messages, there. If you don’t come down hard on this lot, they don’t know their limits,” he is quoted as saying.

While the quotes are not verifiable, Turkey’s presidential communications directorate, which is typically proactive in denying quotes misattributed to Erdogan and other members of the Turkish government, did not disavow the story.

Frustration over the “headscarf crisis” has been tangible in Ankara, with Oktay Saral, one of Erdogan’s top advisors, having taken to Twitter last week to attack the north’s ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel over his handling of the matter.

Saral described Ustel as a “bosbakan”, a play on the word “basbakan”, which means “prime minister” in Turkish, with “bos” meaning “empty”, and added, “what a shame, we could not save Cyprus from Greek Cypriot-ness”.