Organisation of Turkic States (OTS) council of elders chairman and former Turkish prime minister Binali Yildirim on Thursday insisted there is no “new development” in relations between central Asian states and the Republic of Cyprus.

Addressing an event held on the sidelines of the OTS’ summit in Budapest, he was keen to play down the recent headlines.

“No matter how much they try to distort this truth, they cannot succeed, because the Turkish Cypriots are an inseparable part of the Turkish world,” he began.

“Despite this, they say the Greek Cypriot administration of southern Cyprus established relations with the Turkic states, it did this, it did that. These are issues from 30 years ago. You become an independent state, would you say to the state which recognised you, ‘I do not recognise you?’. Mutual recognitions occurred at that time.”

He added that some people are “now trying to put the blame on the Turkic world for this issue as if it is a new development”.

“The issue is very clear. Those who feel queasy about this issue have a problem with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus being a member of the Organisation of Turkic States. They cannot stomach it,” he said.

Yildirim’s comments come after OTS members Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, as well as observer Turkmenistan and non-Turkic Tajikistan, signed a joint declaration with the European Union declaring that all five countries “reaffirmed our strong commitment” to United Nations security council resolutions 541 and 550.

Resolution 541 said the security council “deplores the declaration of the Turkish Cypriot authorities of the purported secession of part of the Republic of Cyprus” while calling on UN member states not to recognise the north.

Resolution 550 said it “reiterates the call upon all states not to recognise the purported state of the ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’, set up by secessionist acts, and calls upon them not to facilitate or in any way assist the aforesaid secessionist entity”.

Turkish opposition political party CHP leader Ozgur Ozel had said the joint declaration’s signing was evidence of a “collapse” of the country’s foreign policy, and even claimed that the status of Cyprus was a key part of a deal brokered by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and United States President Donald Trump to allow the arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu in March.

In addition, the Turkish Cypriots failed to secure an invite to the Budapest summit, with Hungary also having been absent from the OTS’ council of elders’ meeting in Kyrenia at the beginning of the month, despite frequently being a party to such meetings.

Yildirim had said at the time that Hungary was “concerned about the reaction of the European Union and its members, Greece, and the Greek Cypriot administration”.