Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz on Monday said that Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus in 1974 brought peace not only to Turkish Cypriots and to the north of the island, but to Greek Cypriots and the island in its entirety.

Speaking at a military parade in north Nicosia to mark its 52nd anniversary, he said “the 11-year period of persecution and the ordeal which Turkish Cypriots endured between 1963 and 1974 ended, and the conditions for our brothers and sisters to live in peace and security in their own homeland were established”.

He added that “the peace operation brought peace and tranquillity not only to the Turkish Cypriot people, but also to the Greek Cypriots and to the island in its entirety”.

“The 52 years since the operation have clearly revealed the justification of Turkey’s intervention and the importance of is guarantorship in terms of peace in Cyprus. The presence of the Turkish armed forces on the island has been the basis of peace and stability for more than half a century, and now the island is progressing on the path of development and democracy,” he said.

He then moved to criticise what he described as the “Greek Cypriot lobby”, which he said has been “exploiting European institutions”, stressing that “we see it and we consider it null and void”.

“Those who think that they can achieve what they could not do yesterday by force of arms through alliances established in the eastern Mediterranean today and the disinformation-based attempts to turn the facts of history upside down are very mistaken,” he said, in reference to the Greek Cypriot side’s deepening ties with Israel.

He went on to say that “drawing Cyprus into the middle of regional quarrels will not provide security to either side, and on the contrary, will endanger the stability which has been maintained for years”.

“It must be known that no initiative in which Turkey is not involved, in which the rights of the Turkish Cypriots and our legitimate interests in the eastern Mediterranean are ignored, will be successful,” he said.

Moving onto the matter of the Cyprus problem, he said that “negotiations which have been going on for years have been inconclusive because the Greek Cypriot side does not see it fit to share the [island’s] governance and riches or accept the Turkish Cypriots as an equal partner”.

“Approaches which reduce the Turkish Cypriots to the status of a minority and leave their future to the will of the Greek Cypriot side will not produce a solution. The way for a permanent and sustainable solution is to accept the sovereign equality and equal international status of the two states,” he said.

To this end, he said that Turkey “will not allow the Turkish Cypriot youth to be cut of from the world due to unfair isolation”, and that “even if someone tries to cut them off, we will open new doors and continue on our way”.

Drawing his speech to a close, he said that with the support of Turkey, Turkish Cypriots “will continue to live in their own homeland, under their own flag, in freedom, prosperity, and security”.