Erdogan urges recognition of Turkish Cypriot sovereign equality at UN

New York, United States. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on the international community to recognise the “sovereign equality and equal international status of the Turkish Cypriot people” during an address to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.

He also urged countries to establish political, diplomatic and economic relations with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and said the isolation of Turkish Cypriots should end.

Cyprus and eastern Mediterranean

Erdogan referred to Turkey’s maritime disputes with Greece and the Republic of Cyprus, saying Ankara wanted outstanding issues in the Aegean Sea and eastern Mediterranean to be resolved through good neighbourly relations and in line with international law.

He also referred to plans to convene an eastern Mediterranean conference bringing together regional leaders to discuss issues affecting the region.

Palestinian representation

Erdogan said he was saddened that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had been unable to attend the General Assembly hall for a second consecutive year after the United States rejected his visa application.

He described the decision as an injustice against Palestinians and said Turkey would continue to represent what he called the voice of the “free and sovereign state of Palestine” and raise the Palestinian cause from the UN podium.

Regional conflicts

Erdogan said the year since the previous UN high-level week had been among the bloodiest periods of the past 30 years, citing conflicts from Gaza, Ukraine and Russia to Myanmar, Darfur, Iran and Lebanon.

He said 250,000 people had died, while many others had suffered and hundreds of thousands had been displaced.

Erdogan said that more than 74,000 people, most of them women and children, had been killed in Gaza over the past three years, describing Israel’s actions as “state terrorism”. He said Gaza residents were continuing to search for relatives beneath rubble and that children injured in Israeli attacks were trying to continue their education using wooden prosthetics.