Statement of the TRNC Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the European Commission’s 2026 Report on Türkiye
6 November, 2026
Minister of National Education Nazım Çavuşoğlu attended an online meeting of the High-Level Experts Group (HLEG) of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) Education Institute.
According to a statement released by the Ministry of National Education, the meeting, in which the TRNC participated as an observer member, was chaired by Türkiye’s Minister of National Education, Yusuf Tekin.
The meeting was also attended by education ministers and representatives from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Addressing the meeting, Çavuşoğlu stressed that education and science should be kept out of political disputes, stating that no young person should be deprived of access to knowledge, science and international educational opportunities due to geographical or political circumstances.
Referring to the international isolation and restrictions imposed on the Turkish Cypriot people, Çavuşoğlu noted that these conditions had a particularly negative impact on young people’s opportunities for international education, academic mobility, scientific cooperation and cultural exchange.
Çavuşoğlu noted that they attach great importance to developing opportunities for international cooperation in the fields of education, science, culture and technology for Turkish Cypriot young people under the umbrella of the ECO, and said “We aim to strengthen cooperation rather than division, opportunities rather than barriers, and mutual interaction rather than isolation,”.