Fuat Oktay, Turkish Vice President, highlighted the necessity of a two-state solution to the Cyprus issue, in an official visit to the capital of the limitedly-recognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). In a statement given to the TRNC state broadcaster, Oktay stressed that the idea of a federative Cypriot state is left behind, and that there should be negotiations on two separate states on the basis of two equal states and societies on the island.
In recent declarations, Turkey expressed that a federal solution to the Cyprus issue has shown a hopeless trajectory, and, as a result, future talks should focus on the presence of two separate sovereign states on the island. Since 1974, the island has been divided following the attempt of the ultra-nationalist EOKA-B group to unify Cyprus with Greece, against which Turkey intervened as one of the three guarantors in the island.
