Turkey ready to build naval base in Cyprus ‘if necessary’, Erdogan says

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday his country was ready to build a naval base in Cyprus “if necessary,” 50 years after Turkish forces invaded the now-divided island.

“If necessary, we can build a base and naval structures in the north” of the divided island, the official said. Anadolu News Agency he would have said that.

“We also have the sea,” Erdogan said on his return to Turkey after visiting northern Cyprus on Saturday to mark 50 years since the Turkish invasion.

He also accused rival Greece of wanting to establish its own naval base in Cyprus, over whose future the two sides remain more divided than ever.

In 1983, Turkey established what it calls the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), which no other country has recognized four decades after its proclamation by Turkish Cypriot leaders.

As Greek Cypriots mourn those killed or still missing since the 1974 outbreak of violence, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said Saturday that reunification was the only option.

Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004, still divided after Greek Cypriots overwhelmingly rejected a UN plan to end their disputes with Turkish Cypriots.

But across the UN-monitored buffer zone that separates the two communities, Erdogan on Saturday rejected the federal model advocated by the UN, saying he saw no point in restarting discussions on such a plan.

“Frankly, we do not think it is possible to launch a new negotiation process without establishing an equation in which both sides sit on an equal footing and leave the table on an equal footing,” Erdogan said.

The last round of UN-backed negotiations to reunify the island failed in 2017.

“We are building the Northern Cyprus Presidency (TRNC) building and the Parliament building on the island. They are building a military base, we are building a political base,” Erdogan added.

He also praised the “valuable” 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 the Turkish population towards Cyprus.