President Tatar: “We are celebrating the 37th anniversary of the establishment of the TRNC”

The President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Ersin Tatar, made a speech at the ceremony held for the 37th. anniversary of the establishment of the TRNC. Stating that TRNC was established as a result of the courageous existing struggle and unique sacrifices, Tatar said that in order to take firm steps to the future, we must be very careful. Tatar underlined ‘As our National Struggle Leader Dr. Fazıl Küçük and Founding President Rauf Raif Denktaş have always stressed, the highest level that a community can reach is to establish an independent and sovereign state. If we as the Turkish Cypriot people live freely and with honour in our homeland, we owe this to our glorious ancestors and mainland Turkey who always supports us in each and every condition.’

President Tatar also pointed out ‘We were founding equals of the Cyprus Republic from which we were ousted by force of arms in 1963. We tried several administration models until 1983 and then on 15th November 1983 we established the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to honour our independence struggle. The Greek Cypriots although seeming to prefer a federation they still treat us as their minority and this is the reason why they rejected the Annan Plan in 2004 and they upset the negotiation table in 2017 at Crans Montana’.

President Tatar end his words by saying that the Turkish Cypriot side is ready to sit at the negotiation table again but new options should be put on the agenda and underlined the words of Greek Cypriot former Foreign Minister Rolandis who said that it is the Greek Cypriots who have rejected all the solution plans.