Both Turkey and the north offered condemnation for the events held in the Republic of Cyprus to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of Eoka – the paramilitary organisation set up with the aim of uniting Cyprus with Greece – on Tuesday.

Turkey’s ruling AK Party’s deputy leader for relations with Turkic states Kursad Zorlu described the events as “completely unacceptable”, and said Eoka was “a symbol of a dark period remembered with blood and tears in Cyprus”.

“Such provocative steps in these lands, over which the Turkish Cypriot people have equal ownership, do not serve the goal of a real and permanent solution on the island, but create polarisation and perpetuate a lack of a solution,” he said.

He added that “a sustainable future with peace in Cyprus will be possible with the acceptance of the sovereign equality of both peoples and states and their international status based on this”.

Related Articles

“We will always contiune to stand by the Turkish Cypriot people in this just cause,” he said.

Meanwhile, the north’s ‘foreign ministry’ said Eoka was founded “with the aim of committing genocide against the Turkish Cypriot people and annexing the island of Cyprus to Greece”.

It added that the celebrations “reveal that there has been no change in the Cyprus policy of the Greek and Greek Cypriot mentality from the past”.

“In Greece, it was decided to orgsnise events in schools on the occasion of the Eoka anniversary. Following these increasing doses of messages, a Greek MEP [Afroditi Latinopoulou] went to far as to say the slogan ‘Cyprus is Greek’ was correct because ‘Cyprus is Greek’,” it said.

It went on to say that Greece and the Greek Cypriot side have “as their only aim intimidating the Turkish Cypriots with policies of harrassment to make them accept a minority status”.

It said the Greek Cypriot side “has no sincerity in its rhetoric about reaching a so-called agreement” and is “fanning the flames of hostility towards the Turks instead of inviting its people to act with common sense”

Additionally, it said, the Greek Cypriot side “is trying to poison young minds with seeds of hostility and is using the education system as a tool for this dirty politics”,  creating “irreversible damage” and “reinforcing the deep gap in trust between the two peoples on the island”.

For this reason, it said, it calls on the Greek Cypriot leadership to “turn back from this mistake and make its people accept the current realities on the island”.

“The only reality on the island of Cyprus is the reality of two separate states and two separate peoples living side by side,” it concluded.