The Cyprus problem was “all caused by Turkey” and its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, United States Senator Rick Scott said on Friday, as he paid a visit to the island and was given a tour of the buffer zone in Nicosia.
“This is all caused by Turkey and Erdogan. Cyprus, a sovereign, independent nation – actually, a great ally to Israel to the United States, to Greece. It could be a great ally to a lot of countries,” he said after the tour.
He added, “what needs to happen here is Erdogan and Turkey need to stop, stop this”.
“It’s an invasion. It’s an invasion of their sovereignty. This should be one country, completely independent. Allow the people here to make choices on their own,” he said.
He then added that “supposedly, Erdogan wants to be an ally to the United States, wants to be a friend to the United States”, and that Turkey is “a member of Nato”.
“Why don’t they act like an ally? Act like an ally. Treat other sovereign nations with respect. That’s what needs to happen here. Cyprus needs to come together. We don’t need a buffer zone. We need to allow the people of Cyprus to make their own decisions,” he said.
Scott, a Republican who represents Florida in the Senate, has previously been described by the Jerusalem Post as “one of Israel’s most vocal defenders”, and with relations between Israel and Turkey having deteriorated in recent years, he declared last month that Turkey is “not our friend”.
In August, he said he believes US President Donald Trump “is going to have to” resume regular strikes on Iran, with Iran having choked the flow of oil in the aftermath of the initial outbreak of the conflict in the spring.
Scott’s comments on the Cyprus problem are terser than those made by US ambassador in Nicosia John Breslow last month, with Breslow having said that his country “remains steadfast in its support of a Cypriot-led, United Nations-facilitated solution to the island’s division”.
Earlier this year, it had been reported that the US government is “positive” towards Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman’s four points which he says must be met for negotiations on the Cyprus problem to recommence in earnest.
Veteran journalist Ulas Baris wrote that Erhurman’s office received a telephone call from “one of the highest-ranking representatives of the US state department” in December last year, and that the official said, “we appreciate your four-point methodology” and “we find it positive”.