UPDATE - Türkiye rejects top Greek diplomat's remarks on Cyprus dispute

UPDATES WITH STATEMENT BY NORTHERN CYPRUS FOREIGN MINISTRY

By Diyar Guldogan

ANKARA (AA) – Türkiye on Monday released the facts on a decades-long Cyprus dispute and rejected the recent remarks of Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias.

"Greek Cypriots violated the 1960 Constitution and destroyed the partnership Republic in 1963. Türkiye had to intervene after the Greek coup d’etat in July 1974, aiming to stop bloodshed & violence against Turkish Cypriots," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Twitter in reply to Dendias, who had claimed that Cyprus was "illegally" occupied.

The ministry said: "Greece & Greek Cypriots never showed the necessary will for a permanent settlement on the Island. Greek Cypriots rejected the Annan Plan in 2004, left the table in Crans-Montana in 2017.

"The inherent rights, sovereign equality & equal status of Turkish Cypriots should be reaffirmed for a(n) equitable, just & viable settlement on the Island," the ministry said in a statement as opposed to Dendias, who on Sunday said on Twitter that the federal solution is the "only" one for the dispute.

The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC)'s Foreign Ministry also issued a statement, saying the 1974 Cyprus Peace Operation is a "legitimate" operation that "ensured the safety of both Turks and Greeks."

"With this statement, Dendias is trying to make people forget the black mark left by the Greeks in history and to distort the historical and legal facts," it said.

"The coup (in 1974), initiated with the support of the Greek junta in order to connect the island to Greece, is the only occupation movement on the island," it added.

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 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 UK.

The Greek Cypriot administration joined the EU in 2004, the same year Greek Cypriots thwarted the UN's Annan plan to end the longstanding dispute.