President Ersin Tatar visited the ITB Tourism Fair on Tuesday as part of his contacts in the German capital Berlin.
He said that he had found the opportunity to voice the Turkish Cypriot side’s views and position on the Cyprus problem despite all obstacles and preventative efforts carried out by the Greek Cypriot administration.
During his visit to the fair, President Tatar also met with the Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy.
The TRNC Minister of Tourism, Culture, Youth and Environment Fikri Ataoğlu was also present at the meeting.
“We need support to free ourselves of the unjust isolation of the Turkish Cypriot people. We need the support of our friends. Türkiye is supporting us in that sense. Türkiye has a strong influence in Germany,” he told BRT’s reporter.
Speaking after he met with Ersoy, Tatar announced that a promotion and ad campaign would be launched in the UK this month, followed by similar campaigns in Germany and Türkiye.
He said charter flights from the UK would also begin soon and arrangements were being made so that tourists would be able to fly directly from the UK without having to change planes.
Tatar pointed out that they were working together with Turkish officials to overcome the obstacles and embargoes imposed on the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), particularly in the area of tourism.
“Our efforts to increase the number of tourists are underway,” President Tatar said, pointing out that the ability of large-bodied aircraft to land at Ercan Airport, which had been tried on July 20, positively affected tourism.
Tatar also criticized the German President Frank Walter Steinmeier, who visited the Greek Cypriot Administration’s stand at the fair.
He also recalled that the German president had recently visited the Greek Cypriot administration last month.
“We leave them alone with their consciences. If they still haven’t seen the realities of Cyprus, if they still haven’t understood, then the fault is not ours, it is theirs.”
Tatar also emphasized that there are two separate peoples in Cyprus.
Also speaking, the Minister of Tourism, Culture, Youth, and Environment Fikri Ataoğlu said that they were working on increasing the number of beds at hotels, adding that the current occupancy rate at hotels was satisfying.
He said efforts were underway to increase alternative tourism models for the country.
National Unity Party (UBP) Deputy Ahmet Savaşan, who is also the President of the World Health Tourism Council, emphasized the importance of the World Health Tourism Fair, which will be held in April under the auspices of the TRNC, stating that participants from 50 different countries would show interest in the fair.