Prime Minister Tatar ‘Military support of France to the Greek Cypriot Administration is not supporting peace but serving to raise tensions’

Prime Minister Ersin Tatar stated that the military support being provided by France to the Greek Cypriot Administration was not supporting peace but was serving to raise tensions between the sides and preventing efforts to reach a solution to the Cyprus problem.

In his statement Prime Minister Tatar said ‘it was announced officially that a defence cooperation agreement, which was signed on 4th April 2017 between Southern Cyprus and France, had entered into force on 1st August 2020’.

Noting that the Republic of Cyprus, in which the Turkish Cypriots were an equal partner, was split by the expulsion of the Turks as a result of the armed attacks of the Greek Cypriots on 21st December 1963, Tatar said: “The state in Southern Cyprus is a Greek state. Hence, it remains a serious shame in terms of international law that Southern Cyprus continues to sign agreements as if the Republic of Cyprus, of which we were a partner, still exists’.

Ersin Tatar also mentioned that an agreement under the shadow of heightened tensions was a dangerous step because it was against the 1960 treaties.

He underlined “France is a member of the UN Security Council and it has an essential duty of establishing and/or continuing peace and the agreement causes further delay in resolving the issue’.

Prime Minister Tatar added that the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and Turkey were determined to continue to protect their rights in the Eastern Mediterranean.

“We shall not bow down to those who try to ignore the sovereignty and security of the Turkish Cypriot people,” he said.