2.Background – legal and historical context of Turkish Cypriot invisibility
The 1960 constitutional order established the Republic of Cyprus as a bi‑communal partnership between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, with the latter recognized as a co‑founding community endowed with specific political rights and institutional guarantees rather than as a mere minority. This framework, anchored in the Treaties of Establishment, Guarantee, and Alliance, envisaged shared governance and a carefully balanced distribution of offices and veto powers between the two communities. [2]
From the early 1960s onward, however, this power‑sharing architecture broke down as inter‑communal tensions escalated, Turkish Cypriot officials were forced out or withdrew from state institutions, and the effective control of the Republic passed into exclusively Greek Cypriot hands, leaving Turkish Cypriots confined to enclaves and subjected to growing political and economic isolation. AVİM’s previous commentaries and analyses on Cyprus have repeatedly highlighted the resulting mismatch between the original bi‑communal design of the Republic and the way in which the EU, particularly since the 2004 accession of the Republic of Cyprus, has treated the Greek Cypriot administration as the sole representative of the island, relegating Turkish Cypriots to a problem to be managed rather than a constituent partner to be engaged. [3]
[2] Teoman Ertuğrul Tulun, “60th Anniversary of the Defunct ‘Republic of Cyprus,’” Analysis, Center for Eurasian Studies (AVİM), 2020/27, October 15, 2020, https://avim.org.tr/en/Analiz/60TH-ANNIVERSARY-OF-THE-DEFUNCT-REPUBLIC-OF-CYPRUS ; “Turkish Cypriots,” Center for Eurasian Studies (AVİM), accessed January 16, 2026, https://avim.org.tr/Tags/Turkish-Cypriots
[3] “Turkish Cypriots: The EU’s Invisible Europeans,” AVİM Bulletin, Center for Eurasian Studies (AVİM), January 13, 2026, https://avim.org.tr/en/Bulten/TURKISH-CYPRIOTS-THE-EU-S-INVISIBLE-EUROPEANS ; Marcel Brus et. Al. “A Time To Keep Promise: Time to End the International Isolation of the Turkish Cypriots,” TESEV Publications No. 7, June 10, 2008, accessed via Center for Eurasian Studies (AVİM), https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/92494/REV3%20kibris%20sorunu%2009%2006%2008.pdf ; “Turkish Cypriots: The EU’s Invisible Europeans,” AVİM Bulletin, Center for Eurasian Studies (AVİM), January 13, 2026, https://avim.org.tr/en/Bulten/TURKISH-CYPRIOTS-THE-EU-S-INVISIBLE-EUROPEANS