Turkish opposition political party CHP leader Ozgur Ozel on Wednesday said his country’s government’s policy on Cyprus has “collapsed”.

Speaking in a televised interview with Euronews, he reiterated claims he had made over the weekend 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.

“We already know that the Erdogan administration informed the Trump administration and received permission, even though they deny this on the one hand, they cannot explain their behaviour on the other,” he said.

One example of this apparent inexplicable behaviour is that Erdogan has also, according to Ozel, stepped back from previously held positions on the matter of Palestine as part of an alleged two-way street of favours with Trump and the US.

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“Palestine is very important for the political movement to which Erdogan came in the past. There is currently a genocide going in Palestine, and they are deporting people from there. In other words, we were saying that the people who stayed in these bombed areas should go to four different countries and become permanent refugees there, and one of those countries will be Turkey,” he began.

He added that it is Trump’s plan for Palestine to be “emptied”, and that while on a surface level he may have spoken about turning Gaza into “Las Vegas”, he is actually interested in the “rich hydrocarbon fields right in front of Gaza – hydrocarbon fields which will last Europe 100 years”.

“Now, a game has been set up in Syria – the United Kingdom, America, Israel, Turkey have roles to play in this game. There is a game set up in Gaza, too. America and Israel are in this game, and they have given Turkey the role of silence, reciprocated, of course, and when there are these hydrocarbon fields, the rights and interests of Greece, another US ally, and southern Cyprus are at stake,” he said.

On the matter of Cyprus, he said that “while the Turkic republics were expected to recognise the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, they recognised southern Cyprus.

“Two of them had recognised them years ago but had no diplomatic relations, but now they all assigned ambassadors there and signed a decision declaring Turkey as an occupier on the island,” he said.

“This is a collapse in Turkish foreign policy, but they cannot even react to it. In other words, Turkey’s policy on Cyprus has collapsed, its policy on Palestine has collapsed, and it does not even speak up about it.”

“In return for what? Turkey is saying nothing in return for the world remaining silent about this attempted coup d’état,” the phrase he has used to describe the arrest of Imamoglu.

Erdogan and Erbakan

He then pointed out that the MSP, the party of which Erdogan had been a member between 1975 and 1981, was a minor coalition partner in the Turkish government of 1974, striking a contrast between the actions of that party and its leader and then-Deputy Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan and Erdogan’s alleged actions in the present day.

“Turkey saved Cyprus with the peace operation, carried out by Erdogan’s former party and its leader Necmettin Erbakan, and the CHP. Erdogan is giving up on his rights in Cyprus,” he said.

The matter of Turkic states’ stances on Cyprus has been an ongoing theme in Turkey since the start of the month, when a joint declaration was signed by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and non-Turkic Tajikistan with the European Union earlier this month, ruling 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 was 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”.