The foreign minister of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Tahsin Ertugruloglu has strongly criticised the UN Security Council, accusing it of depriving the Turkish Cypriot people for six decades through failed negotiations on the Cyprus issue.

Ertugruloglu, speaking in Washington after attending the UN General Assembly, described President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s call for international recognition of the TRNC as ‘highly meaningful and extremely important’, stressing it reflected the unanimous position of the Turkish parliament.

Ertugruloglu said Turkish Cypriot leaders had for decades sought a federal solution, including the TRNC’s founding president Rauf Denktas, but accused the Greek Cypriot side of never genuinely supporting such efforts.

He argued that Greek Cypriot leaders participated in talks only to avoid blame while undermining compromise, a dynamic which unfairly saw Denktas labelled ‘Mr No’.

‘That era ended long ago,’ Ertugruloglu said, insisting there was no chance of a new partnership on the island. He argued that Cyprus’s future could only be based on ‘two sovereign and equal states’ co-operating on mutual terms.

Commenting on next month’s TRNC presidential elections, Ertugruloglu said a ‘5+1’ format meeting could follow at the UN in New York, bringing together leaders of both communities, the foreign ministers of guarantor states Türkiye, Greece and the United Kingdom, alongside UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

He underlined that Turkish Armed Forces’ presence in the TRNC guarantees the safety of Turkish Cypriots, regardless of military activity on the Greek side.

A decades-long dispute

The Cyprus problem dates back to the 1960s, when inter-ethnic violence forced Turkish Cypriots into enclaves. In 1974, a coup backed by Greece aimed at uniting the island with Athens triggered Türkiye’s intervention as guarantor power, leading to the establishment of the TRNC in 1983.

Despite repeated UN efforts, including the failed 2017 talks in Switzerland, no settlement has been reached.

In 2004, Greek Cypriots blocked a UN reunification plan even as they secured entry into the European Union.

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