Turkish opposition party CHP leader Ozgur Ozel on Tuesday called on Turkic states to recognise northern Cyprus as an independent country, while also lamenting the fact that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa visited Cyprus to attend last month’s informal European Council meeting in Nicosia.

“Those who are following matters see how we are being excluded in the eastern Mediterranean. The United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Egypt are all against us,” he told his party’s MPs.

He added that while the Turkish government had made “a move” in Libya with efforts to delimit maritime borders between the country, but that “Greece is working around the clock to thwart that as well”.

Greece’s position is that Turkey does not share a maritime border with Libya, and has made efforts with the government of Egypt, and this week with the Libyan government of national unity, to pursue agreements which would render those efforts invalid.

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Turkey had signed an agreement with the Libyan government of national accord in 2019, but it was never ratified by Libya’s legislature. The government of national unity superseded the government of national accord in 2021 and is now the sole internationally recognised government of Libya.

Ozel went on to say that “the United Arab Emirates, [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan’s friend, is against us”, and that “Saudi Arabia, for which he declared mourning when its king died, is against us”, while “Qatar, which he trusts so much, is conducting drilling operations for Greeks in the eastern Mediterranean”.

“Seeing this weakness, Greece is arming the [Aegean] islands, in violation of all agreements, continuing to arm the islands right before our eyes. All of Europe stands behind them,” he said.

On Cyprus, he said that “the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is our national cause” and that “our biggest goal in the medium term is to introduce the TRNC to the world, to ensure its recognition, so that we can then overcome this disadvantageous, asymmetrical situation with the Greek Cypriot administration and achieve gains through diplomacy”.

“The Turkic states closest to us need to recognise it first. Not a single one recognises it. First, they went and recognised southern Cyprus. Now, they are sending ambassadors one by one, and that Greek Cypriot administration in southern Cyprus holds the rotating presidency of the [Council of] the European Union,” he said.

On this matter, he then criticised the state of affairs which led to al-Sharaa attending the European Council summit in Nicosia.

“Al-Sharaa. The al-Sharaa … whom our people recognise, the al-Sharaa whom they legitimised, goes at the invitation of the Greek Cypriot administration. Not only does he go, but he stands there, and in the city divided in two, he does not even cross over to the Turkish Cypriot side to have a cup of coffee with our president. Not even a cup of coffee,” he said.

As such, he said, al-Sharaa “recognises the Greek Cypriot administration”.

“Al-Sharaa, whom Turkey had applauded last December for ‘setting up big games’, is now going and endorsing the existence of the Greek Cypriot administration in southern Cyprus, and, like others, saying to the TRNC, ‘you do not exist, I do not recognise you,” he said.

He then stressed that this amounts to a policy failure on the part of the Turkish government, saying, “they have brought Turkey to this point”.

Ozel’s intervention comes after President Nikos Christodoulides had said that efforts were made to prevent al-Sharaa from participating in the informal European Council summit in Nicosia.

“Although I had some information that some tried to prevent his participation in the European Council summit, he chose to be here, spoke publicly, and raised during the discussions how he sees the developments in the European Union’s relations in Syria,” he said.