Tuesday

19th Mar 2024

Erdoğan holds rainy picnic in Cypriot ghost-town

  • The ghost-town of Varosha is meant to stay empty until there is a peace deal, according to the UN Security Council (Photo: michael kirian)

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has angered Cyprus and left-wing Turkish Cypriots by holding a picnic in the hot-button location of Varosha.

His visit, on Sunday (15 November), saw Turkish officials bring in shrubs and other decorations to the ghost-town, which has stood empty for 45 years, but was spoilt by heavy wind and rain, the AP news agency reported.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

  • Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also called for a "two-state" solution (Photo: Flickr)

It also violated UN Security Council resolutions, which say Varosha ought to stay empty, until it is put under UN administration as part of a peace process.

Erdoğan said, in a speech in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus the same day, that his navy would continue to keep looking for oil and gas in Cypriot-claimed waters around the EU member state.

"Turkey's search for hydrocarbon resources will continue until a fair settlement is reached," he said.

He rubbished prospects of a UN-negotiated reunification of Cyprus, by calling for a two-state solution instead.

"A two-state solution must be discussed and negotiated on the basis of sovereign equality," he said.

And he indicated that Azerbaijan, a Turkish ally, might soon become the first country in the world, except Turkey itself, to recognise the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

The TRNC's president, Erst Tatar, was shortly going to visit Baku to "make the situation better", Erdoğan said.

Tatar, a nationalist who also wants two states, was recently elected in a TRNC vote goosed by Turkish financial donations to his supporters.

But Erdoğan's visit prompted a rare show of defiance by left-wing Turkish Cypriots, who back Tatar's rival, Mustafa Akıncı, and reunification.

"No picnic over pain", some of the protest banners said, The Guardian newspaper reported.

It also prompted anger in Cyprus and Greece, who had, anyway, been calling for EU sanctions on Turkey in response to its naval adventures in the eastern Mediterranean.

Turkey "does not respect at all international legality, European principles and values, and its obligations toward the European Union", Cypriot president Nikos Anastasiadis said on Sunday.

And the Varosha picnic was a "torpedo" against UN-mediated reunification talks, which had stalled in 2017, but which were hoped to resume later this year, Anastasiadis added.

It was "an unprecedented provocation", the Greek foreign ministry also said.

Erdoğan's trip came a few days ahead of EU leaders' talks, due Thursday, in what has become a pattern of Turkish pre-EU summit stunts.

But EU leaders earlier said they would hold off on sanctions until in-depth talks on Turkey relations in December.

The sanctions options include scrapping an EU-Turkey customs union, in what would be a kick in the teeth to an already-fragile Turkish economy.

They include an arms embargo, after Turkey recently bought high-tech drones from Nato and EU states and used them to help Azerbaijan defeat Armenia in a war in the South Caucasus.

And they include visa-bans and asset-freezes on Turkish officials and entities in charge of the oil-and-gas expeditions in Cypriot and Greek waters.

Cyprus was divided in 1974 when Turkey invaded, after a Greek-led coup, to protect ethnic Turks.

Varosha had been a majority-Greek town, called, by some, the "Jewel of the Mediterranean", but Turkish soldiers forced people out at gunpoint.

The eastern Mediterranean aside, Erdoğan has, in the past year or so, antagonised Europe by invading northern Syria, sending troops to Libya, and calling on the millions of refugees Turkey hosts to go to the EU.

He has also picked a fight with French president Emmanuel Macron, calling him mentally ill and ordering a boycott on French products, after Macron defended secularism in the wake of a jihadist murder in Paris.

Turkey to fine social media giants under new law

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Periscope, YouTube and TikTok were fined by Turkish authoirties for failing to appoint a representative able to address complaints, as required by a new law.

Agenda

MEPs prepare for another virtual plenary This WEEK

Ahead of the next European summit in mid-December, MEPs will address the EU's long-term budget and rule-of-law conditionality in another virtual plenary session. Discussions will also focus on consumer rights, pharmaceutical strategy and the pandemic.

Borrell: 'Israel provoking famine', urges more aid access

70 percent of northern Gaza is facing famine, new data shows. There is one shower per 5,500 people, and 888 people per toilet. 'How can you live in these conditions?" asked Natalie Boucly of UNRWA at the European Humanitarian Forum.

Opinion

Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers

The UN could launch an independent international investigation into Navalny's killing, akin to investigation I conducted on Jamal Khashoggi's assassination, or on Navalny's Novichok poisoning, in my role as special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, writes the secretary-general of Amnesty International.

Latest News

  1. Borrell: 'Israel provoking famine', urges more aid access
  2. Europol: Israel-Gaza galvanising Jihadist recruitment in Europe
  3. EU to agree Israeli-settler blacklist, Borrell says
  4. EU ministers keen to use Russian profits for Ukraine ammo
  5. Call to change EIB defence spending rules hits scepticism
  6. Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers
  7. EU summit, Gaza, Ukraine, reforms in focus this WEEK
  8. The present and future dystopia of political micro-targeting ads

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us