Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Ersin Tatar blasted the Greek Cypriot administration on Monday for recent attacks, adding another point of disagreement to the agenda of the neighbors.
Tatar described the actions of the Greek Cypriots arresting individuals who purchased property in the TRNC as "terrorist activities."
Tatar received Maria Angela Holguin Cuellar, the U.N. secretary-general's representative for Cyprus, at the TRNC presidential complex.
Holding a news conference after the meeting, Tatar criticized the actions and conveyed their discomfort to Cuellar to be conveyed to U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
Tatar said he informed Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulidis that the arrests were having a negative impact on the peace process.
He emphasized that no progress could be made, either in the U.N.-supervised trilateral meeting or in broader negotiations, unless the Greek Cypriot side halts the arrest of individuals who have purchased property in the TRNC.
He said the Greek Cypriot administration is trying to strangle the TRNC, which is already under embargo and isolation, and labeled the actions as "terrorizing."
"The terrorizing actions of the Greek Cypriot side continue to increase. The attacks are a miscalculation aimed at attempting to bring us to our knees. We have conveyed this situation to the U.N. There is great discomfort due to property issues. Until these issues are addressed, the trilateral meeting will not benefit anyone."
After the meeting, Cuellar said she listened carefully to Tatar's concerns. They discussed confidence-building measures agreed upon by the parties in Geneva in March and that they must achieve results on these issues for the next meeting in New York in July.
Cuellar said she had a good meeting with Tatar and will meet Christodoulides on May 30.
The U.N. official said she would do her best in Cyprus and build a bridge between the parties for concrete results.
Tatar previously criticized the Greek Cypriot administration last year for targeting the TRNC’s tourism. The Greek Cypriot administration has initiated a process against third-country nationals who purchased property from the TRNC, claiming that they are supposedly "looting (alleged) Greek Cypriot property."
Cyprus has been mired for decades in a dispute between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the U.N. to achieve a comprehensive settlement. Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety. In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece's annexation led to Türkiye’s military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence. As a result, the TRNC was founded in 1983. It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Türkiye, Greece and the U.K.
