During an OET summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “thanked” the members of this organization for having “accepted the Republic of Northern Cyprus as an observer member”.
But the other members of the OET had not confirmed this membership, Uzbekistan, host country of the summit, and Kazakhstan even throwing uncertainty on the Turkish announcement, without however formally denying it.
“This decision, pending ratification by the members of the Organization, is regrettable and contradicts the fact that several members of the Organization have expressed their strong support for the principle of territorial integrity and the Charter of the United Nations”, said Peter Stano, spokesman for European Foreign Minister Josep Borrell, in a statement.
“Any action aimed at facilitating or assisting in any way the international recognition of the Turkish Cypriot secessionist entity seriously undermines efforts to create an environment conducive to the resumption of talks under the auspices of the United Nations,” he said. he continued, recalling that the EU “only recognizes the Republic of Cyprus as a subject of international law, in accordance with the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council”.
The Turkish president for his part said that the membership of Northern Cyprus as an observer member of the OET did not have the value of recognition, Turkish media reported on Saturday.
“It would be wrong to consider this as recognition. Recognition has other characteristics and it is something delicate,” Erdogan told reporters on board his return flight from Samarkand.
The Turkish head of state, however, added his intention to “work” for the international recognition of Northern Cyprus.
The TRNC declared its independence unilaterally in 1983, nine years after the invasion of northern Cyprus by the Turkish army, in reaction to a coup d’etat by Cypriot-Greek nationalists who wanted to attach the island to Greece. This “declaration of secession” was deemed “legally void” by the UN Security Council three days later.
Cyprus remains today divided, the Republic of Cyprus, member of the EU since 2004, exercising its authority only on the southern part of the island.
