The ‘TRNC’ flag was on display at the 146th Inter-parliamentary Union summit in Bahrain, alongside the flags of other countries, images that surfaced on the internet showed on Monday.

A Turkish Cypriot delegation of ‘MPs’ was also present at the summit that took place in Manama. The summit will be running until March 15, and its opening day was two days ago.

The Turkish Cypriot delegation was made up of ‘MPs’ Oguzhan Hasipoglu (UBP), Asim Akansoy (CTP), Serhat Akpinar (DP), and Talip Atalay (YDP) and the ‘representative’ of the north in Bahrain Umut Koldas.

A meeting between Turkish Cypriot ‘MPs’ and Greek Cypriot MPs was organised by the Facilitators’ Group for Cyprus on behalf of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

According to an announcement by the ‘parliament’, during the meeting there was an exchange of views on the Cyprus issue and shared views on cooperation and joint action on the issue of climate change and natural disasters and the continuation of these meetings in Cyprus were discussed.

On behalf of the Facilitators’ Group for Cyprus, the meeting was coordinated by MPs Samuel Cogolati from Belgium, Lia Quartabelle from Italy and Laurent Werhli from Switzerland.

The meeting was attended by Oguzhan Hasipoglou, Asim Akansoy, Serhat Akpinar and Talip Atalay from the Turkish Cypriot side, and Christiana Erotokritou, Alexandra Attalides, and Marinos Moushoutas from the Greek Cypriot side.

It was not made clear if the ‘TRNC’ was present at the meeting as an official state or an observer group.

UPDATE 27.07.2023 - Bahrain apologises for ‘TRNC’ flag mistake

House speaker Annita Demetriou said on Wednesday that the parliament had sent a letter of protest to the Bahrain parliament, following images that surfaced showing the ‘TRNC’ flag at an inter-parliamentary union meeting hosted in Manama, for which they quickly received an apology for from the Gulf nation.

She said that the letter of protest was sent to the head of the parliament in Bahrain Ahmed Bin Salman AlMusalam on March 13.

In her letter, Demetriou said that raising the flag of an illegal, separatist and subservient entity to Turkey, as a result of the Turkish invasion and continued occupation of the territory of the Republic of Cyprus, is against international law and Security Council resolutions 541 and 550 of the UN.

Demetriou said that she received his letter of apology on Wednesday, and that it was not done on purpose.

AlMusalam said that Bahrain is against any violation of the UN resolutions and that this mistake should not affect relations between the two countries.

At the conference, a Turkish Cypriot delegation of ‘MPs’ was also present. A meeting between Turkish Cypriot ‘MPs’ and Greek Cypriot MPs was organised by the Facilitators’ Group for Cyprus on behalf of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

According to an announcement by the ‘parliament’, during the meeting there was an exchange of views on the Cyprus issue and shared views on cooperation and joint action on the issue of climate change and natural disasters and the continuation of these meetings in Cyprus were discussed.