Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay has said that the time had come for the recognition of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

He said that the approval of the TRNC’s observer status at the Summit of Organisation of Turkic States being held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan will be among Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s top priorities.

Speaking to Turkish State Television-TRT Haber, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said that the TRNC was special for Türkiye.

“Our position on Cyprus is clear. Our policy on the TRNC has entered a new phase following our president’s call made at the UN General Assembly. The TRNC is indispensible for Türkiye’s Eastern Mediterranean policy and its security. In other words we are talking about an equation whereby neither can exist without the other,” he said.

Oktay reminded that the Turkish Cypriot people continued to be punished despite supporting all past solution plans presented on Cyprus.

He said that a two-state solution was not the only solution model that could be reached on the island.

“Our president has repeatedly reminded us that the world is greater than the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. The time has come for the recognition of the TRNC,” the Turkish vice president said.

He added that approving the TRNC’s observer status at the Organisation of Turkic States will be Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s top priority at the summit underway in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

Also touching upon a decision by the Greek Cypriot administration to open a museum for the founder of the terrorist organisation EOKA, the late Greek Colonel Yorgos Grivas, Oktay said that such a move was fitting for the Greek Cypriot leadership which was responsible for numerous massacres against innocent Turkish Cypriots starting from the 30s all the way until the Turkish Peace Operation in 1974.