Northern Cyprus needs to be protected from all sides: Turkish president

By Merve Aydogan

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish unarmed aerial vehicles and combat drones are in Northern Cyprus to protect it from all sides, the Turkish president said on Tuesday.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan was speaking to reporters on his way back from European Political Community Summit in Prague.

Asked whether there is a plan to set up a Turkish military base in the northeastern Karpaz peninsula in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Erdogan said Turkish drones may also be sent to the region.

"Because we need to secure Northern Cyprus from all sides, from all aspects. Whether it (the base) is (set up) or not, our jets will immediately be in Northern Cyprus as soon as they take off from our mainland," he added.

- Decades-long dispute

Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the UN 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 of the island led to Türkiye’s military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence. As a result, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus 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 UK.

The Greek Cypriot administration entered the EU in 2004, the same year that Greek Cypriots single-handedly blocked a UN plan to end the longstanding dispute.