Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on Friday described recent efforts made by the Greek Cypriot side to dissuade diplomats in Nicosia from attending a briefing given by his undersecretary Mehmet Dana, and to bring about the cancellation of international events in the north, as being aimed at making the Turkish Cypriots “walk away from the table”.

“From our perspective, neither Barcelona, nor the festival, nor the attempts to obstruct Mehmet Dana’s briefing to ambassadors in the buffer zone are matters of the past, closed, or behind us. Neither are the ‘legal’ initiatives regarding property issues, nor the one-sided, biased European Parliament resolutions,” he said.

He added regarding Dana’s briefing that “the fact that the ambassadors attended sufficiently demonstrates” that any reason given by the Greek Cypriot side for them not to attend the briefing “is not a legitimate one which can be considered by the international community”.

“Despite the ongoing talks, the Greek Cypriot leadership is continuing its efforts to render the Turkish Cypriots invisible. Despite the ongoing talks, we will continue both our efforts to counter these attempts by the Greek Cypriot leadership, and our efforts to make our people visible,” he said.

On this front, he said that “these efforts have, and always will have, visible and invisible aspects”, before offering criticism both for the Greek Cypriot leadership, and for more nationalist circles of Turkish Cypriot politics.

“There is a two-sided effort to make the Turkish Cypriots, one of the two equal founding partners on this island, walk away from the table and sever all communication with the international community and its organisations. As always, both sides continue to play into each other’s hands,” he said.

He said to this end that “those in the south want the Turkish Cypriots to leave the table so they can continue to play the role of the ‘victimised party demanding a solution’”, and that “those in the north are preoccupied with the idea that ‘our side should leave the table, no solution is the solution, let’s remain isolated,”.

“The common ground is the goal of rendering the Turkish Cypriots invisible, of preventing them from connecting with the world. Our people know that, as has been the case until now, we will not surrender to either side,” he said.

Then offering criticism for his predecessor Ersin Tatar, he went on to say that “no one should expect us to once again be so oblivious as to support the efforts to render Turkish Cypriots invisible by eliminating all international contacts, freezing all processes, saying, ‘I will not talk to this person, I will not engage in dialogue, I will not do diplomacy, supposedly standing firm, but actually remaining stuck in place”.

“Actions have been taken from all sides to break the morale and motivation of the Turkish Cypriots. Of course they will be, because their comfort zones have been disrupted. Now, the cards have been reshuffled,” he said.

He then stressed that “the Turkish Cypriot people have been fighting for their existence on this island since 1878”, the year that the British Empire took over the running of the island from the Ottoman Empire.

“No one should dare underestimate the experience, accumulated knowledge, and trained human resources of this people. The fight is not waged by exchanging insults in Sarayonu square,” he said, in reference to the central square in northern Nicosia.

He went on to say that it is now “election season” and that “the winds of elections are blowing in both the north and the south”.

“Of course, everyone needs to show themselves, to produce words and be visible. I know and understand this. However, it should be known that elections come and go, but the Turkish Cypriot people’s fight for their existence will not end,” he said.

He pointed out that “the people gave me this mandate ten months ago”, and that “I will have more than four years left of my term”.

“My promise to my people is that I will never give up on the rights, security, and equality of this people on this island, and I will never tolerate this people being rendered invisible or prevented from connecting with the world. My word is my word,” he said.

He then added that “I speak my mind while looking into the eyes of those to whom I am speaking, and will continue to do so”, before saying of President Nikos Christodoulides that “someone who is confident in their own words will say it to my face”.