Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said that “historical problems” in Cyprus can be left behind with a two-state solution on the island.

“We believe that we can leave the historical problems behind with a two-state solution on the island of Cyprus, and we are advancing our work in this direction,” he told journalists on his flight back to Turkey from Italy, where he had met the country’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

“We will continue to increase our efforts for the recognition of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Turkey will never leave the TRNC alone and destitute. It is the Republic of Turkey’s historical and humanitarian responsibility to defend the rights and interests of the Turkish Cypriots on every platform,” he said.

He added that he and his government are “extremely determined to fulfil this responsibility”, before touching on the matter of other Turkic states’ stances on the Cyprus problem, saying, “we believe that the Turkic world will continue to stand by its brothers”.

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Earlier in the week, he had promised “good news of new investments” during his forthcoming visit to Cyprus, which is set to take place on Saturday, in light of the Teknofest aerospace and technology festival’s taking place in Cyprus and the official opening of Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar’s new official residence in Ayios Dhometios.

Of the new residence, and the adjacent new ‘parliament’ building, he said on Wednesday that “we have built a magnificent parliament building and presidency building”, and that “both are enviable works”.

The mention of Turkic states comes amid ongoing political debate over a joint declaration signed by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and non-Turkic Tajikistan with the European Union which ruled out the prospect of any of them recognising the north as an independent country.

The joint declaration which precluded the Turkic states’ recognising of the north 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”.

Turkish Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmus had said on Monday night that Turkey “did not expect” the declaration to be signed, and that “we were greatly disappointed”.

However, he said, “I think they will make up for this in the near future”, before adding that they had “understood the sensitivities of the issue” and that “God willing, we hope that then necessary measures will be taken”.

Opposition political party CHP leader Ozgur Ozel had said the joint declaration’s signing was evidence of a “collapse” of Turkish foreign policy, and even claimed that the status of Cyprus was a key part of a deal brokered by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and United States President Donald Trump to allow the arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu last month.