New Turkish ambassador pledges to work for ‘sunlit uplands’
New Turkish ambassador in the north Yasin Ekrem Serim on Tuesday pledged to “try my best to bring the Turkish Cypriot people and Turkish citizens living here to the sunlit uplands”.
Speaking during a meeting with the north’s ‘parliament speaker’ Zorlu Tore, he said, “the Turkish Cypriot people live safely under their own flag and state, and Turkey will always be by their side.
“The democratic life and maturity seen in the TRNC is not present in many countries in the world,” he added, while also expressing his satisfaction with the “effective functioning of legislative activities” in the north’s ‘parliament’ under Tore’s speakership.
Tore spoke about “the steps Turkey has taken to strengthen the TRNC’s socio-economic structure”, and expressed his belief that the amount of aid given by Turkey to the north would increase during Serim’s term as ambassador.
He also called on Turkey to be “a more deterrent force in its neighbourhood” and described the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s call at last year’s United Nations General Assembly for other UN member states to recognise the north as “a historical turning point”.
He also made reference to Erdogan’s declaration that “the world is bigger than five”, referring to the five members of the UN Security Council, saying, “this statement is understood much better today”.
Tore’s comments about Turkey being a deterrent force in its neighbourhood comes shortly after the country reshuffled some of its high-ranking military positions, with ‘TRNC security forces commander’ Osman Aytac appointed to a role in Turkey and replaced with Ilker Gorgulu.
At the same time, Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar reacted furiously to the placement of the United States’ amphibious assault ship the USS Wasp in Limassol.
He had decried what he called President Nikos Christodoulides’ “efforts to be a party to the crime against humanity which Israel has been committing every day for about a year with its attempted genocide”, while also saying he had put “his personal reputation above all.
“I have repeatedly warned the Greek Cypriot leader to avoid steps which would risk the entire island’s security for political purposes,” he said, adding that Turkey had made similar warnings through diplomatic channels.