In a major diplomatic setback for Turkey, four key Central Asian nations—Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan which are thought to ethnically aligned with Turkey—have formally endorsed United Nations Security Council Resolutions 541 and 550
These resolutions condemn the 1983 unilateral declaration of the so-called "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" and reaffirm the sovereignty of the Republic of Cyprus over the entire island.
The endorsement was made official during the EU–Central Asia summit in Samarkand on April 3–4, where the Central Asian countries issued a joint declaration explicitly backing the UN’s long-standing position: that Turkey’s military presence and attempts to legitimize the separatist regime in northern Cyprus are illegal under international law.
This marks a dramatic shift within the Organization of Turkic States, as fellow Turkic nations now openly oppose Ankara’s decades-long occupation of northern Cyprus—an occupation that began with the 1974 Turkish invasion and continues in defiance of international condemnation.
