President Ersin Tatar made a call during his address at the 15th Session of the Islamic Summit Conference of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) held in Banjul, the capital of The Republic of The Gambia.

In his speech at the Summit, the President emphasized that the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is fully committed to the objectives of the organisation of Islamic Cooperation and spares no effort to contribute to the OIC activities, works and meetings at all levels, adding that the TRNC has had the honour to host three well organised OIC activities in 2008, 2011 and in 2014.

Tatar said he is thankful to the OIC for its numerous resolutions on Cyprus,” that have “called upon the international community and member states to take necessary steps to end the inhuman isolation imposed on the Turkish Cypriot People.

Stating that the TRNC is ready to work with the honourable Secretary-General of the OIC as well as the brotherly member states on a road map to increase the collaboration between the TRNC and the OIC, Tatar said that High level visits by OIC to the TRNC, participation of Turkish Cypriot athletes in the Islamic Solidarity Games and the acceptance of TRNC passports as a travel document would constitute significant initial steps towards further strengthening the solidarity among us.

President Tatar also said: “Despite innumerable negotiation processes over the past 56 years under the auspices of the UN, efforts to reach a settlement in the form of a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation have yielded no result, due to the intransigent stance of the Greek Cypriot side. As the Turkish Cypriot side, we withdrew our consent from the exhausted federal basis and put forward a new vision. A settlement to the Cyprus issue can only be found based on the realities on the ground.”