President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Turkey is ready to build a naval base in Cyprus, half a century after its forces invaded the now-divided island.
“If necessary, we can construct a base and naval structures in the north” of Cyprus, Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency quoted the leader as saying on Sunday.
Erdogan said he flew back to Turkey after visiting Northern Cyprus on Saturday to mark 50 years since Turkey’s invasion. He also accused rival Greece of wanting to establish a naval base of its own in Cyprus, on whose future both sides remain as divided as ever.
Cyprus gained independence from Britain in 1960, but a shared administration between Greek and Turkish Cypriots quickly fell apart following violence that saw Turkish Cypriots withdraw into enclaves and the dispatch of a United Nations peacekeeping force.
In 1974, Turkey captured more than a third of the island and expelled more than 160,000 Greek Cypriots to the south.
Cyprus has since been split by ethnicity, with Greek and Turkish Cypriots living on either side of a UN-patrolled border.
In 1983, Turkey installed what it calls the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus – a breakaway state recognised only by Turkey.
On Saturday, Erdogan attended a military parade in north Nicosia to mark the day in 1974 when Turkey launched its offensive.
As Greek Cypriots mourned those killed and still missing since their expulsion in 1974, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides on Saturday said reunification was the only option.
A divided Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004 as Greek Cypriots overwhelmingly rejected a UN plan to end their differences with Turkish Cypriots.
But on the other side of the UN-patrolled buffer zone that separates the two communities, Erdogan on Saturday rejected the federal model championed by the UN, saying he saw no point in relaunching talks on such a plan.
“Frankly, we do not think it is possible to start a new negotiation process without establishing an equation whereby both parties sit down as equals and leave the table as equals,” he said.
The last round of UN-backed talks to reunify the island collapsed in 2017.
“We are constructing on the island the building of the presidency of Northern Cyprus and the parliament building. They are constructing a military base, we are building a political base,” Erdogan said.
He also hailed the “precious” presence during Saturday’s visit of the leader of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Ozgur Ozel, saying it demonstrated the “unity” of Turkey’s population with regards to Cyprus.
