Erdoğan calls for talks on two-state solution during Northern Cyprus visit

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Sunday called for talks about the divided island of Cyprus around a settlement between "two separate states.’’

Erdoğan’s remarks arrived during a visit to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), marking the anniversary of the breakaway republic.

"There are two peoples and two separate states in Cyprus," Deutsche Welle Turkish cited Erdoğan as saying. "There must be talks for a solution on the basis of two separate states."

The Mediterranean island has been divided along ethnic lines since 1974, when a Turkish military intervention sought to counter a Greek-backed coup. Turkey is the only country that recognises the TRNC.

"There is a need for talks on a two-state solution on the basis of sovereign equality,’’ the Turkish president said, in an apparent reference to talks in the past that have aimed at the reunification of the island.

Erdoğan’s visit arrives amid heightened tensions on the island and in the Eastern Mediterranean over hydrocarbon resources.

The Turkish president is set to attend celebrations in the reopened beach resort of Varosha, marking the 37th anniversary of the TRNC. The visit, condemned by Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades as a provocation, follows the election last month of Ankara-backed Ersin Tatar as the president of the breakaway republic.