Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman stressed the need for “results” to be achieved at the next enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem in his speech marking the 52nd anniversary of Turkey’s invasion of the island.

“We do not want negotiations for the sake of negotiations, or a five-plus-one meeting for the sake of a five-plus-one meeting. We want to be result-orientated,” he said, with five-plus-one a reference to the island’s two sides, its three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, and the United Nations, who would all attend an enlarged meeting.

He stressed the importance of Turkey’s arrival on the island to the continued existence of the Turkish Cypriots.

“If it were not for the peace operation, carried out by the Turkish armed forces and the Turkish Cypriot freedom fighters on July 20, 1974, it was clear what the coupist junta would have brought the Turkish Cypriots and the Greek Cypriots whom they described as traitors,” he said.

In line with this, he said that the establishment of the ‘Turkish federated state of Cyprus’ in February 1975 was “an important indicator in terms of historical facts”, and stressed that “trying to rewrite that by moving away from the historical facts will not bring results”.

“The Turkish Cypriot people are one of the two equal founding partners on this island. This people are equal owners of this island. It is not a minority. It never has been and it never will be. Under no circumstances will it give up its rights, its equality, or its security on this island,” he said.

He went on to say that the Turkish Cypriots “have been willing to solve [the Cyprus problem] for many years”, pointing to its vote in favour of the 2004 Annan plan to reunify Cyprus and its support for the most recent round of negotiations in earnest, held at the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana in 2017, as examples.

On the matter of the Annan plan, he said that “statements made by the United Nations, the European Union, and the Council of Europe” in its aftermath “to the effect that isolations on the Turkish Cypriots should be lifted … are but memories”, and criticised international institutions for “biased attitudes which have been exhibited recently” on Cyprus.

“Rituals of looking through holes in walls into the north, attempts to ignore Turkish Cypriot losses, one-sided and biased attitudes and decisions are things from which we should learn together while shaping today and the future,” he said.

He referred to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ insistence that “this time it must be different”, and called for confidence-building measures between the island’s two sides to be implemented as soon as possible.

He also said that “the rules of the new negotiation need to be determined before the new process begins”.

“Let us not start from where we left off as if nothing happened and then cause a brand new disappointment,” he said, before adding that “the rights of our children cannot be left exposed to an uncertain future”.