Turkish Defence Minister Yaşar Güler visited northern Cyprus to mark the 52nd anniversary of Türkiye's 1974 military intervention, as Ankara reaffirmed its support for Turkish Cypriots and renewed its call for international recognition of the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
On Sunday, Güler met Tufan Erhürman, president of the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), and joined commemorations marking the anniversary.
According to the Turkish Defence Ministry, the Turkish Air Force marked the occasion by conducting training flights with combat and support aircraft in international airspace south of the divided island.
Speaking to Turkish state media, TRNC Foreign Minister Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu said that "decades of talks" had failed to resolve one of the world's longest-running territorial disputes.
Ertuğruloğlu blamed the United Nations for contributing to the impasse by recognising the island's Greek Cypriot administration as the Republic of Cyprus.
He also criticised the European Union's decision to admit the Republic of Cyprus as a full member despite the island's continued division.
On Monday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said Ankara would continue "defending the interests of Turkish Cypriots" and working towards international recognition of the TRNC as a sovereign state.
Writing on social media, Turkish Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş said Türkiye remained the "guarantor of the legitimate rights of the Turkish Cypriot people and of peace and tranquility on the island of Cyprus."
Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines for more than five decades.
Türkiye sent troops to the eastern Mediterranean island on 20 July 1974, five days after a coup backed by a military junta in Athens sought to unite Cyprus with Greece.
Ankara says it intervened as a guarantor power to protect the island's ethnic Turkish minority.
Turkish forces ultimately seized control of more than a third of the island. In the ensuing conflict, large numbers of Greek and Turkish Cypriots were displaced, cementing the island's partition.
In 1983, Turkish Cypriots established the TRNC, but the breakaway state is recognised only by Türkiye.
In 2004, the internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus, which controls the island's south, formally joined the European Union.
Repeated UN-backed peace initiatives have since failed to reunify the island.
While Greek Cypriot leaders continue to support a federal settlement bringing both communities together, Türkiye and the Turkish Cypriot leadership advocate a two-state solution with two separate sovereign states enjoying equal international status.
Next week, UN Secretary-General António Guterres will visit the island in an effort to revive the moribund peace process.
"We hope conditions will be created for the resumption of talks," Nikos Christodoulides, president of the Republic of Cyprus, said over the weekend.
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