ANKARA 

Türkiye said Saturday that the Greek Cypriot Administration (GCA) destabilizes the region.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said recent Agapinor 2022 drills by Israel and the GCA, which came at the cost of disturbing regional stability, is another proof of the cynicality of the GCA.

“We call on countries which take part in such actions by GCA, not to be means of provocations and propaganda,” he said in a statement.

The ministry also emphasized that Türkiye will continue to resolutely defend the rights and interests of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

Decades-long dispute

Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the UN to achieve a comprehensive settlement.

Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety.

In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece's annexation of the island led to Turkiye's military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence. As a result, the TRNC was founded in 1983.

It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Turkiye, Greece and the UK.

The Greek Cypriot administration entered the European Union in 2004, the same year Greek Cypriots thwarted a UN plan to end the longstanding dispute.

Turkiye, which has the longest continental coastline in the Eastern Mediterranean, has rejected maritime boundary claims by Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration, stressing that their excessive claims violate the sovereign rights of Turkiye and Turkish Cypriots.