Northern Cyprus Rejects EU Special Representative as Illegitimate

The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Foreign Ministry has declared that the European Union's appointment of Raffaele Fitto as a special representative for Cyprus carries no legitimacy. The ministry stated that the appointment was made at the request of the Greek Cypriot administration without the consent of the TRNC or regard for the will of the Turkish Cypriot people.

The visit of European Commission Vice-President Raffaele Fitto, appointed as EU special representative for Cyprus, to the island immediately after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' contacts on Cyprus, is the latest example of the EU's insistence on becoming involved in the Cyprus issue, according to the TRNC Foreign Ministry.

The ministry stressed that the EU's appointment of a special representative is unacceptable at a time when even the UN has refrained from appointing one for Cyprus. It added that Fitto will not be recognized as an interlocutor in any way, and the TRNC government will not accept any activity he may conduct in that capacity or any attempt to become involved in a possible process.

The TRNC Foreign Ministry noted that the EU lost its impartiality on the Cyprus issue when it admitted the Greek Cypriot Administration as a member in 2004 while disregarding the will of the Turkish Cypriot people. It said this encouraged the Greek Cypriot side's uncompromising position, deepened inequality between the two sides, and became one of the main obstacles to reaching a settlement.

Nor will he be recognized as an interlocutor in any way.

Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. 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 Turkey's military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots.

The TRNC was founded in 1983. The Greek Cypriot Administration entered the EU in 2004, the same year Greek Cypriots single-handedly blocked a UN plan to end the dispute.