Three countries refer to ‘TRNC’ in Antalya forum releases

A total of three countries made direct reference to the ‘TRNC’ in official government announcements related to meetings held on the sidelines of the Antalya diplomacy forum.

The Turkish government was the first, as was widely expected, given that it is the only country which formally recognises the north as an independent country.

The Turkish presidential communications directorate referred to Tufan Erhurman as the “president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” after he met President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Erdogan himself used the same terminology during his address to the forum.

Azerbaijan’s government, too, referred to Erhurman as the “president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” in its official release after he met President Ilham Aliyev.

Aliyev has previously used the same title to refer to Erhurman’s predecessor as Turkish Cypriot leader, Ersin Tatar, and also promised on the sidelines of last year’s Antalya diplomacy forum to ensure that the north will gain international recognition.

“We are only thinking about how we can help our brothers protect their state … They deserve this in terms of history and what they have done,” he said.

The third country to make direct reference to the ‘TRNC’ was Pakistan, with the country’s foreign ministry writing in an official statement that the country’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar had met “the foreign minister of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” Tahsin Ertugruloglu.

It added that “both sides reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening bilateral cooperation across various sectors, particularly for [the] education and welfare of the Pakistani diaspora in the TRNC”.

Pakistan, alongside Bangladesh, initially recognised the north when it declared independence in 1983, but both countries withdrew their recognition just three days after the declaration after the passage of the United Nations Security Council’s resolution 541.

Resolution 541 declared the north’s independence to be “legally invalid”, while also reaffirming resolution 367, passed in 1975, which called upon all UN member states to “respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and non-alignment of the Republic of Cyprus.”

Pakistan was also one of the UN Security Council’s ten non-permanent members in 1983 and voted against resolution 541 but withdrew its recognition after it passed. Jordan abstained from voting, while the other 13 members all voted in favour.

More recently, the country’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif declared his country’s “support for the people of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” during a visit to Ankara last year.

He also said last year that Pakistan “fully supports the cause of northern Cyprus” when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Islamabad earlier last year

“Turkey has always stood by the just cause of the people of occupied Jammu and Kashmir, and you have always maintained your stance loud and clear, and similarly, Pakistan fully supports the cause of northern Cyprus and fully stands by Turkey on this cause in an unwavering fashion,” he said.