The Cyprus problem “is above politics in Turkey”, the country’s Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said on Tuesday.

Speaking during a visit to the north, he said that across Turkey’s political spectrum, “our solidarity and unity is an undisputable issue”.

“Our heart always beats with the TRNC. We will continue to support it in the strongest way. Our unity of power, togetherness, and solidarity are the most fundamental issues,” he said.

During his visit to the island, he met both Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar and the north’s ‘parliament speaker’ Ziya Ozturkler.

Cross-party unity in Turkey on the matter of the Cyprus problem has been tested in recent months, with opposition parties incensed by a perceived lack of action after four central Asian Turkic states signed a joint declaration with the European Union which ruled out the prospect of any of them recognising the north as an independent country.

Opposition political party CHP leader Ozgur Ozel had said the joint declaration’s signing was evidence of a “collapse” of the country’s foreign policy and also described the country’s foreign policy as “bankrupt”.

He 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 in March.

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

Other high-profile Turkish political figures who have criticised the country’s government’s stance on Cyprus included Ayyuce Turkes Tas, deputy leader of the Iyi Party responsible for the Turkic world and overseas relations, whose father, former Turkish deputy prime minister Alparslan Turkes, was himself a Cypriot.

“We need to analyse where there are deficiencies and mistakes, where we could not adequately explain our foreign policy even to our brother countries … we could not make them feel the importance of the TRNC,” she said.