Tatar meets Erdogan in New York

Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Turkish House in New York on Thursday.

Tatar’s office said he had “expressed his gratitude” to Erdogan, “for strongly defending the Turkish Cypriot people’s just cause in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly, as in previous years”.

“We always feel the Republic of Turkey’s support intensely,” he added.

Erdogan did not make a statement after the meeting.

Erdogan had told the general assembly there are “two separate states and two separate peoples on the island” of Cyprus, and that “the acquired rights of the Turkish Cypriots, namely sovereign equality and their equal international status, must be re-committed, and their isolation must end.”

Then, he called on the UN’s member states to recognise the north as an independent country.