“There is no Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, but a Turkish Republic of Cyprus,” Turkish parliamentary defence committee chairman and ruling AK Party MP Hulusi Akar said on Saturday.

Akar, a retired four-star general who had previously served as chief of staff of the Turkish armed forces and then as defence minister, was speaking a conference in the city of Bursa, and said Turkey’s cause in Cyprus “will never end”.

“We have rights and laws within the framework of the treaty of guarantee and other agreements there. No matter what other countries, the United Kingdom and Greece do, we are the guarantor there according to the agreements,” he said.

He added that Turkey has “fulfilled our duties and responsibilities as a guarantor to date and we will continue to do so.

“The most important issue in Cyprus is that the south sees the north as a parasite, sees it as a second-class place. No, we say ‘equal’ and we mean equal. But in the end, we say no conclusion has been reached in negotiations for 50 or 60 years.

“It is over now. There is no Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, but a Turkish Republic of Cyprus, whether you understand it or not. For that reason, we are supporting our Cypriot brothers on this issue,” he said.

He also made reference to the possibility of deepening cooperation between Turkey and the new government in Syria, including the potential delineation of the two countries’ maritime exclusive economic zones (EEZ) – an idea which had caused concern among both Greece and Greek Cypriots.

“If Syria is safe and stable, of course there is a lot we can do as two neighbouring countries, two friends, two brother countries. One of these is of course maritime jurisdiction areas, because recently, with the provocations of our western neighbour [Greece], the Egyptians are continuing to make provocations by saying they did something,” he said.

He was referring to Greece and Egypt’s decision to delimitate their EEZs in 2020 – an agreement based on Greece’s claimed EEZ including its islands, which Turkey disputes.

Cypriot government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis had expressed concerns about the potential of Turkey and Syria delimitating their EEZs in the eastern Mediterranean and potentially encroaching on the Republic of Cyprus’ EEZ, and criticised the European Union’s “reflexes” for dealing with such matters.

“Cyprus is a member of the EU. The Republic of Cyprus is affected directly and indirectly by developments and unfortunately we have seen in corresponding developments in our region that the EU’s reflexes are not what we would expect, or those that the times require,” he said.

To this end, he was keen to issue a reminder that “any violation of Cyprus’ territorial integrity is a violation of European Union territory.

“Following the rekindling of Turkey’s interest in its relations with the EU, as well as the interconnection of this process with the Cyprus problem, Cyprus’ territorial integrity is a message that we as the EU must send constantly and with intensity and frequency, so that it becomes clear that international law cannot be ignored,” he said.

Akar most recently visited Cyprus in February, visiting Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar shortly after assuming his duties as parliamentary committee chairman.

Then, he had told Tatar that Turkey and the north would “continue to work hand in hand for the welfare and security of the Turkish Cypriots”.