President Tatar attended the Freedom and Justice Campaign for Northern Cyprus reception as part of his contacts in London.

During the reception he called on guarantor country, England, to pay attention to the Turkish Cypriot people’s call for equality and justice.

President Ersin Tatar, who is in London for a variety of contacts, attended the Freedom and Justice Campaign for Northern Cyprus reception.

Speaking during the reception which took place at Westminster in London, President Ersin Tatar said that the Turkish Cypriot people are equal partners on the island of Cyprus.

“I call out to the international community and guarantor country England. It is time to see the truth in Cyprus, the Turkish Cypriot people are equal people with their state and institutional structure and we want justice” said Tatar.

Lords, British MPs, diplomats, officials of embassies, former British ministers, members of the media, academics, lawyers, politicians, business people and representatives of non-governmental organizations and guests attended the reception.

Speaking with British parliamentarians and lords at the reception, Tatar spoke about the new policy on the ground of two equal states put forward by the Turkish Cypriot side and emphasized that the Turkish Cypriot people want justice.

Expressing their support for the campaign, President Ersin Tatar said, “We are equal partners in Cyprus. We are also equal co-founders of the Republic of Cyprus. We have been keeping the Turkish presence alive in Cyprus since the Ottoman period”.

Noting that Britain, which had leased the island from the Ottoman Empire, should have left the island to Türkiye when withdrawing from Cyprus but had refrained from doing so, Tatar stated that problems had begun on the island during this process.

Explaining that motherland Türkiye has always stood by and supported the Turkish Cypriot people, Tatar noted that since 1974, there has been peace and tranquillity on the island thanks to Türkiye.

He noted that there have been two regions in Cyprus for the past 50 years and that although the UN has been carrying out negotiations between the two sides it has not yielded any results and the search for a federal solution has been exhausted.

Tatar said that the Greek Cypriot side, which stood against all the plans, has not given up on its dream of Enosis, uniting the island with Greece and that its only goal was for the Turkish soldiers to leave the island.

Explaining that as the Turkish Cypriot side, they have put forward a new policy that includes a solution model based on two sovereign states, Tatar said, “We will not return to the old painful days in Cyprus. Fully aware of our past and without forgetting what happened we will move towards the future without risking anything”.

He also pointed out that the EU cannot be involved in the solution process because the EU is not biased, and called on the guarantor country, England, to hear the Turkish Cypriot people’s desire for equality and justice.

Stressing that the Turkish Cypriot people are as equal as the Greek Cypriots in Cyprus, Tatar said, “We want equality and justice.”

“The Turkish Cypriot people will never give up their struggle. We respect our Greek Cypriot neighbours, but we want and expect the same respect. We can build the future with a win-win strategy with the two-state model,” he said.

President Ersin Tatar’s book “Vision of two states in Cyprus” was also distributed during the reception.