Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Tuesday called on his counterparts from the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS) to “remove the unfair isolation suffered by the Turkish Cypriot people”.

Addressing a meeting of the OTS’ member states’ and observers’ foreign ministers, he said the decision to allow northern Cyprus to become an observer of the OTS in 2022 “strengthens the unity of the Turkic world” and said the Turkish Cypriots’ rights “are our shared responsibility”.

The north’s ‘foreign minister’ Tahsin Ertugruloglu told attendees that the eastern Mediterranean is “a strategic intersection, not only in terms of energy resources, but also international sea and air routes”.

“Within this delicate balance, the island of Cyprus, and therefore the TRNC, is in an indispensable position for establishing regional security and peace. The TRNC considers the establishment of lasting peace on the island and its surroundings to be our most important and primary duty,” he said.

He added that “the path to lasting peace lies in a just, realistic solution based on the cooperation of two sovereign and equal states”.

To this end, he said that “approaches which aim for the dominance of a single side or which ignore the sovereign equality and equal international status of the TRNC” are “doomed to failure”.

“Cyprus is not the name of the state, but of an island. On this island, there are two separate peoples, two separate states. Neither of these states has the right or authority to represent the entire island,” he said.

He then said that the “primary threat to our region today” is “the ongoing tension and policies of provocation being pursued by the Greek Cypriot side”.

“The Greek Cypriot administration in southern Cyprus’ uninterrupted and increasing armament is occurring in an environment where the just Palestinian cause, the region’s deepest and most bleeding wound, continues to be prevented from achieving success,” he said.

His comments come after Cyprus last month took delivery of the Israeli Barak MX air defence system – a surface-to-air missile designed to defend against airborne threats, which prompted sources from Turkey’s defence ministry to warn of “dangerous consequences”.

They added that “any attempt to disrupt the balance on the island is being carefully monitored”.

Defence Minister Vasilis Palmas had pre-empted a Turkish response to the purchase of the missiles, saying it would be hypocritical.

“I consider them to be absolutely hypocritical in the sense that for 51 years, 40,000 Turkish troops have been in occupied Cyprus. Cyprus is a victim of invasion, and its self-evident right to defend its territorial integrity and sovereignty through its deterrent power, through its defensive armour, is an obligation we have towards the Cypriot people and towards ourselves,” he said.