Mr. President,

Esteemed guests,

Ladies and gentlemen…

I respectfully greet you all.

I would like to begin my speech by commemorating with mercy and gratitude our 126 brothers and sisters, the youngest of them a baby only 16 days old, who were martyred in Atlılar, Muratağa and Sandallar exactly 51 years ago today, on 14 August 1974, during the Cyprus Peace Operation, and our 89 Turkish Cypriot kinsmen who, the very next day in Taşkent, were taken from their villages “on the pretext of a prisoner exchange” and martyred.

Today we are speaking here about the past, the present and the future of Cyprus. Our main topic is the two-state solution and the Blue Homeland vision… But in order to assess these topics properly, we must first remember the lessons history has given us. With the Ottoman conquest in 1571, Cyprus became an island of justice and peace. The different religions and nations living on the island, chiefly Turks and Greeks, lived side by side for three centuries. However, with the arrival of the British in 1878, this balance was upset. The British administration strengthened the Greek population, pushed the Turks into the background and pursued policies that would set the two communities against each other.

The Republic of Cyprus, established in 1960, was on paper the joint state of two equal peoples. But the Greek leadership never accepted this partnership. The attacks that began with “Bloody Christmas” on 21 December 1963 spread across the whole island. The wife and three small children of Major Nihat İlhan were massacred in their home. In Ayvasıl, 21 Turkish villagers were buried in a mass grave. Geçitkale, Boğaziçi, Muratağa, Sandallar, Atlılar, Taşken and so many other villages and settlements whose names I cannot list here… The massacres experienced in these villages are not merely figures; they are the bloody pages of a people's struggle to exist.

And today the Greek side, although it is the side that carried out these massacres, still produces a false history in order to portray the Turks as occupiers. It raises its own young people on these lies. Only in recent weeks, Greek youths came to the border and shouted, “Cyprus is Greek and will remain Greek.” Our own young people, on the other hand, remained silent. Because we have not taught this history to our own young people as we should have.

The coup by the Greek junta on 20 July 1974 was, for the Turkish Cypriot people, a moment of either existing or ceasing to exist. Türkiye, exercising its right arising from the Treaty of Guarantee, launched the Peace Operation. This operation saved a people from genocide.

In the following years many opportunities came to reach a solution. The most important was the Annan Plan of 2004. Even though many articles of that plan were against us and it fell short on the issues of security and political equality, we said “yes” simply so that there would be a solution. The Greek Cypriots, however, said “no”. The European Union did not even put pressure on the Greek side to say “yes”; on the contrary, it rewarded the Greek Cypriots who said “no” by admitting them to membership. And to this day it has not fulfilled the promises it gave us that day, that is, the commitments such as lifting the isolations, direct trade and the right to political representation. This has shown us the following: however well-intentioned the Turkish Cypriot people may be, the Greek side does not give up its insistence on a single state, and the EU does not give up its double standard. That is why, at the point we have reached today, the two-state solution is not merely a political preference but the only way for the dignity and the security of our people.

Cyprus lies at the heart of the Eastern Mediterranean, at the crossroads of energy routes and maritime trade. The Blue Homeland vision means protecting our rights at sea and taking an equal share of these resources. The unilateral drilling attempts of the Greek side are unlawful and threaten peace.

Esteemed friends, the Cyprus cause is a nation's struggle for existence. We cannot load this struggle onto the shoulders of leaders alone. We are obliged to teach this cause to our young people and to keep our memory alive. If Greek youths are motivated by lies while our own young people do not even hear the truth, then our future is in danger. That is why the importance of these meetings and these speeches is very great. Our cause is the cause not only of the past but of the future. And insisting on the two-state solution and standing upright in the Blue Homeland is our debt both to our martyrs and to future generations.

I respectfully greet you all.