Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on Friday met Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on the sidelines of the Antalya diplomacy forum.

The meeting was also attended by Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Turkish Cypriot ‘foreign minister’ Tahsin Ertugruloglu.

Neither Erhurman’s office, nor Aliyev’s office, made further comment about the meeting.

Later in the day, he also met Organisation of Turkic States secretary-general Kubanychbek Omuraliev.

Erhurman had met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Thursday, with the Turkish presidential communications directorate saying that in that meeting Erdogan had said “the military units sent to the island from some European countries under the pretext of the war in Iran need to not be permanent”.

After Cyprus was hit by an Iranian-made drone last month, Greece, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Turkey, and the United Kingdom all deployed naval or aerial assets to the island and its vicinity.

While Erhurman was joined at Thursday’s meeting by his undersecretary Mehmet Dana and his chief of staff Mustafa Erguven, Erdogan was joined by Turkey’s National intelligence organisation (Mit) chief Ibrahim Kalin.

Erdogan’s comments regarding the buildup of foreign military assets in and around Cyprus echo those made by Erhurman last month, who told Turkey’s Anadolu Agency that “I do not think that the military assets which have come here will be permanent, and I am saying very clearly that they should not be”.

“Of course, their arrivals will be reported in the foreign press, and when that is reported, no matter what you say, the perception that this region is not a safe region will be implanted into people’s minds,” he said.

He added that with that array of military assets arriving in Cyprus, “you actually do not feel secure”, before criticising the Republic of Cyprus’ decision to strengthen its ties with Israel in recent years.

“It was not very recently, was it, the emergence of efforts to form an alliance between Israel, Greece, and southern Cyprus. Now, Israel is one of the main actors in this war, and you are portraying Israel as one of your allies and partners. So, if there are security concerns here, everyone can see from where they arise,” he said.

To this end, he said that “the Greek Cypriot administration must abandon this adventurous stance and face the realities as soon as possible”.

“If southern Cyprus continues to see itself as a very special actor in the region, we will continue to face very great risks,” he said.