Ankara, Turkey. The Turkish government on Thursday denied reports that Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan had cancelled a planned trip to Kazakhstan after Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides began a three-day visit to the Central Asian country this week. Turkish media, citing officials familiar with the matter, said the reports were baseless.
Turkey rejects cancellation claims
Reports on Wednesday said Fidan was planning a visit to Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana, but cancelled it and was “visibly troubled” and “dissatisfied” over Christodoulides’ trip.
Turkish newspaper Turkiye Today quoted officials familiar with the matter as saying “the rumours are entirely baseless” and that Fidan’s current tour of Asia, which included visits to Indonesia and Singapore earlier in the week before his arrival in South Korea on Thursday, was “strictly designed for east and southeast Asian countries”.
The same sources said reports that Fidan had planned and cancelled a trip to Kazakhstan amounted to “false information” being circulated by actors seeking to manufacture “a diplomatic crisis between Turkey and its close partners”.
Christodoulides visit to Kazakhstan
Christodoulides arrived in Kazakhstan on Tuesday and described the visit as “historic” before meeting President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Wednesday.
Kazakhstan is one of a small number of countries that diplomatically straddles Cyprus’ divide. Last month, Tokayev invited Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman to Turkistan in southern Kazakhstan for a leaders’ summit of the Organisation of Turkic States.
At that summit, Erhurman said “the Turkish Cypriot people, who have internalised universal values such as human rights, democracy, and the rule of law, have consistently and clearly demonstrated their will for a just and lasting solution and reconciliation on the island”.
Regional diplomatic context
Last year, Kazakhstan was one of five Central Asian states, along with Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, that signed a joint declaration with the European Union effectively ruling out recognition of the north as an independent country.
The declaration drew criticism from Turkey’s opposition. Ozgur Ozel, then leader of the CHP and removed from the role last month by a court ruling, said the declaration showed a “collapse” of the country’s foreign policy.
He also said the status of Cyprus was a key part of a deal he said was brokered by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and United States President Donald Trump to allow the arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu in March last year.
