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Anger as Erdogan visits breakaway north of Cyprus for ‘picnic’
NICOSIA, Nov 15, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday
visited the Turkish-occupied north of Cyprus at a time of heightened tensions
on the divided island and in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Erdogan was to attend a “picnic” in the disputed beachfront area of Varosha
along the UN buffer zone that has divided the island since Turkey’s 1974
invasion of the north.
The majority Greek-speaking Republic of Cyprus, an EU member with effective
control over the southern two thirds of the island, has condemned the visit
as a “provocation without precedent”.
Erdogan’s visit comes at a time when regional power Turkey has openly
sparred with neighbours Greece and Cyprus over maritime territories believed
to hold vast gas deposits.
An eventual reunification of Cyprus has looked more remote since an
Erdogan-backed Turkish nationalist, Ersin Tatar, was elected leader of the
north last month.
The Turkish president visited on Sunday to mark the anniversary of the
self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), which is
recognised only by Ankara.
Erdogan was due to visit Varosha, a long-abandoned beach resort that was
once the playground of celebrities and dubbed a “Jewel of the Mediterranean”.
The Turkish invasion — launched in response to an Athens-engineered coup
in Nicosia designed to unify Cyprus with Greece — was followed on November
15, 1983 by the declaration of the TRNC.
Since then, Varosha has been a fenced off ghost town, where former luxury
hotels and restaurants have fallen into disrepair and overgrown by weeds and
bushes.
Turkish troops partially reopened the seafront of Varosha on October 8,
stirring international criticism.
Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades condemned Erdogan’s visit, as well as
what he called the historical “secessionist act of the declaration of the
illegal regime” in the north.
He said Erdogan’s visit served to “torpedo” UN-led efforts to work toward
resolving “the Cyprus problem” in talks between Greek and Turkish Cypriots,
Athens, Ankara and former colonial power London.
Erdogan’s increasingly assertive stance has sparked protests in the Greek-
speaking south — but also in the north, where many Turkish Cypriots resent
Ankara’s interference in the island’s politics.
“No interference! Freedom for all!” hundreds of Turkish Cypriot protesters
chanted in northern Nicosia on Tuesday to denounce Erdogan’s visit.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1909 hrs