Erdogan: "Cyprus Could Have Been Completely Turkish"

The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said in a speech to the Turkish military on Monday this week that the Turkish invasion of Cyprus did not realize its full potential. "If the Turkish forces had moved further south in 1974, all of Cyprus could have been Turkish today."

Erdogan further stated that "half a century ago, Turkish Cypriots were brought back from the brink of genocide. In the 'Peace Operation' of 1974, 498 Turkish soldiers and civilians were killed... Maybe if we had pushed south, and I say this as someone who was a child then, there would be no more north and south and Cyprus, but it would have been completely ours."

Relations between the north and south of Cyprus have been troubled ever since the invasion of 1974, considered by Cypriots (the south) as a dark stain on their past that they haven't managed to overcome, as many were expelled from their properties in the north of the country. To this day, many in the southern part of the country fear that Turkey, often under Erdogan's rule, will try "to finish the job" and take over more parts of the neighboring island.

President of Turkey, Erdogan. Photo: 123rf

In line with the deteriorating relations between Turkey and Israel, so are the relations between Northern Cyprus and Israel, even though the north of the island has been a tourist area for Israelis in recent years and many have also purchased properties in Northern Cyprus.

In mid-2023, it was reported that an attack by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards against Israelis staying in Cyprus was thwarted, through a terror network originating in the Turkish Cyprus territories in the north of the country.