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Türkiye on Monday described the European Commission’s decision to appoint another special envoy for Cyprus as an internal matter of the European Union, while saying the bloc lost its neutrality on the Cyprus issue after admitting the Greek Cypriot administration in 2004.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Oncu Keceli made the statement on the U.S.-based social media platform X after the European Commission appointed Vice President Raffaele Fitto as its Cyprus special representative.
“We regard the European Commission’s decision to once again appoint a ‘Cyprus Special Envoy,’ as in the case of similar appointments in the past, an internal matter of the European Union,” Keceli said.
Keceli said Türkiye maintains that the EU lost its neutrality on the Cyprus issue in 2004 when it admitted the Greek Cypriot administration as a member despite its rejection of a U.N.-backed comprehensive settlement plan.
Keceli said EU institutions, particularly the European Parliament, have continued to pursue a “completely biased” approach toward the Cyprus issue.
He said this position has become more pronounced in recent years.
Türkiye expects the newly appointed European Commission official to work toward changing the EU’s stance, Keceli said.
He said Ankara also expects the official to recognize that a settlement can only be reached through negotiations between two sovereign and equal states based on the realities on the island.
The Foreign Ministry of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) also rejected the appointment, saying it was made without the consent of the Turkish Cypriot side and ignored the Turkish Cypriot people.
“The appointment, made without the consent of the Turkish Cypriot side and by ignoring the Turkish Cypriot people, is a provocative step and once again reveals the European Union’s biased stance on the Cyprus issue,” the TRNC Foreign Ministry said.
The ministry said the appointment was illegal and would never be acceptable for the Turkish Cypriot people.
It said the EU had lost all neutrality and credibility on the Cyprus issue by unilaterally admitting the Greek Cypriot administration in 2004 while ignoring the inherent rights and interests of the Turkish Cypriot people.
The TRNC Foreign Ministry said EU efforts carried out jointly with the Greek Cypriot side to pressure the Turkish Cypriot side and create a fait accompli were “doomed to fail.”
The ministry said that if the EU wants to show credibility on the Cyprus issue and sincerity in contributing to the process, it should first lift political, economic, cultural and all other restrictions on the Turkish Cypriot people.
It also said the European Commission’s appointment of Fitto as a so-called Cyprus special representative, on the recommendation of the Greek Cypriot administration, was unilateral and illegal.
The ministry said any EU attempt to intervene in the Cyprus issue through such an appointment was unacceptable for the Turkish Cypriot people.
Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots 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 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.
The island 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.
The Greek Cypriot administration entered the European Union in 2004, the same year Greek Cypriots single-handedly blocked a U.N. plan to end the longstanding dispute.
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