The Prime Minister Turkish Republic of Northern Ünal Üstel met with the Turkish Cypriots at a holiday event organized in London.
Prime Minister Üstel made a speech about the developments in the TRNC at a special event organised by Alton & Co’s Altan Kemal, Londra Gazete’s Yılmaz Özyiğit and Euromed Maritime’s Hasan Gazi, which was held on Friday 12 April.
Before Prime Minister Üstel’s speech, TRNC London Consul Tahir Tahir took the floor to celebrate the holiday of the citizens in the UK.
Turkey’s Ambassador to London, Osman Koray Ertaş, spoke of the deep history Turkish Cypriots hold in the UK Turkish community “In this country, you were the first to raise the flag,” said Ertaş.
Adding “We have more than half a million Turkish community members in the UK, and it is growing day by day. Despite embargoes and isolations, you preserved our language and culture. Hopefully, as long as we have unity and solidarity, we will overcome problems together. Happy Ramadan Bayram.”
Prime Minister Ünal Üstel began his speech at the event by congratulating the Turkish community in the UK on Ramadan Bayram.
Üstel thanks organisers for inviting his to attended the business networking event and hope that the event would help strength ties together between the two counties.
Remembering that Turkish Cypriots went through a long and arduous process starting from the 1950s and achieved freedom with the 1974 Cyprus Peace Operation. “From those days to today, with solidarity and reconciliation and with the great support of our homeland Turkey, we have come. We are working tirelessly to take our country to a better place. Although they impose isolation and embargoes on us, we overcome these embargoes with the relations of our homeland Turkey,” he said.
Üstel continued his speech looking at the goal and aim set by his government to aid the TRNC into efficient and growing economy. He also proposed a number of questions to the attending looking at a number of key issues that he welcomed opinion on.
“We always want to be with you. Your problems are our problems. How can we bring our children and young people together? What can we, as a state, do? We wanted to talk about and hear from you.
“At the same time, how can we encourage successful business people here to invest in the TRNC? We are here to hear from you.
“The TRNC has gone through difficult times, but we have never given up. We are committed to addressing and completing projects that have not been done for many years, and we are realizing many projects.
“How can we contribute to the business people living in London? We are working on what we can do to ensure that the children and young people in this country do not lose touch with their culture.
“One of the biggest complaints we receive is the difficulty of transportation due to the central location of our Embassy in London. To overcome this problem, we can look to open a liaison office in South London and North London once a week.
“We will solve the identity and passport problem. We will solve this problem within 15 days at the latest.”
Üstel also answered questions regards issues peoples faced and answered each one clarified any misconception and welcomed ideas which can be looked into for a better relationship with Turkish Cypriots living in the UK.
Following the question answer, guests enjoyed refreshments and appetisers while speaking
TNRCPrime Minister Ünal Üstel later had dinner with a group of business people, including Foreign Press Officer of TRNC President Ersin Tatar, Ambassador Ertaş and diplomats from the TRNC London office.
