Former Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, who served in post between 2005 and 2010, said he “regrets” the European parliament’s plans to erect a monument to the Greek Cypriots who went missing during Turkey’s invasion of the island in 1974, and lamented what he saw as fellow former Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar’s contribution to the plan.

“As the prime minister and then the president who inherited the Committee on Missing Persons [CMP]’s search for missing persons and the return of their remains to their families, I deeply regret this decision the European parliament has made,” he began.

However, he said, “if you fail to understand that being ignored is inevitable in the absence of diplomacy and dialogue, and if you pave the way for the Greek Cypriot side to exploit the advantages of being both a recognised state and a member of the European Union, then you will and up in a protest situation like that of today”.

He then made reference to the fact that Tatar during his term, which lasted between 2020 and last Friday, had refused to meet the EU’s envoy for the Cyprus problem Johannes Hahn, and that the north’s ‘foreign minister’, Tatar ally Tahsin Ertugruloglu, had described Hahn’s appointment to the role as “null and void”.

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“If you declare the European Union-appointed envoy for the Cyprus problem ‘null and void’ and refuse to meet him, they will also consider you null and void. Greek Cypriot MEPs, who can do everything they can because they sit in the European parliament in Brussels, will persuade the European parliament to pass such a resolution,” he said.

He added that the “right thing to do” would have been “to prevent this unilateral decision by receiving direct communication from Brussels, where you have a representative office”.

On this matter, he said that if the Turkish Cypriot representative in Brussels was not informed about the matter, “you should have worked with a lobbying group”.

“Let us not forget that Brussels is a city of lobbies, and so is the European parliament,” he said.

He added that “back in the day, we would have heard if a bird took flight in Brussels”, and that as such, “we must do everything in our power to ensure the voices of Turkish Cypriots are heard there and protect the interests of our people”.

“It is easy to rush into protests after it is too late. We must do what is difficult,” he said.

On Saturday, incumbent Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman had said it is “impossible to accept” the erection of such a monument, adding that “this decision demonstrates a complete ignorance of the work of the CMP, which has been working on the issue of missing persons for years”.

“The outcome is also instructive, as it demonstrates how wrong the practice of filling two seats in the European parliament which should belong to the Turkish Cypriots by Greek Cypriots is, and how it prevents the European parliament from being informed of the truth about Cyprus,” he said.

He added that “this decision will not be a matter which we will dismiss with a single word of condemnation”, and that “the necessary initiatives will be taken without delay with the European parliament and with all relevant actors”.

“Our people will be regularly informed of our efforts regarding this decision, which is one of the most painful examples of the habit of pretending there are no Turkish Cypriots on this island, which we frequently mention and has become increasingly evident in recent years,” he said.

The motion to build the monument had been put down by Disy member of the European parliament Michalis Hadjipantela during the European parliament’s debate on the EU’s budget for the coming year.

“Europe must remember and stand by the victims of the Turkish invasion. The monument at the European parliament will be a symbol of memory, awareness, and historical truth for all Europeans,” he said at the time.

Also included in the European parliament’s adopted text regarding the budget was a demand for the EU to allocate an extra €1 million of funding to the CMP and to the bicommunal technical committee on cultural heritage.

If approved by the European Council, the money will be allocated through the EU’s aid programme for the Turkish Cypriot community.

In its 2025 aid programme, the EU allocated €2.6m to the CMP and €2.5m for the technical committee on cultural heritage.