Cyprus on Wednesday marks the 40th anniversary since Turkish Cypriot politicians and Turkey unilaterally declared the occupied part of Cyprus an independent state.
The declaration never achieved international recognition.
The government of the Republic of Cyprus, political parties and social organisations strongly condemn the move which violates international law and UN resolutions.
Greek Cypriots – displaced since the 1974 Turkish invasion – are holding anti-occupation protests to mark the anniversary all along EU-member Cyprus.
Only Turkey, which still maintains troops in the breakaway north, recognizes the ‘republic’ established there.
UN-brokered talks throughout the years to reunite the island under a bi-zonal, bi-communal federal system failed mainly due to the Turkish intransigence.
The last round of talks collapsed in 2017 with recently-released UN minutes on the high-level conference in Cyprus revealing that Turkey’s non-negotiated demand for its role as guarantor to continue was why the process collapsed.
Turkey, Greece, and the UK are the guarantor powers of Cyprus since its independence in 1960. Both Greece and Britain have said they no longer want to continue in this role.
