ΑΝΚΑRΑ – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reportedly won’t go to the occupied northern third of Cyprus on July 20 to mark 48 years since two unlawful Turkish invasions seized the territory no other country in the world recognizes.

That was according to the Kibris Postasi newspaper on the Turkish-Cypriot side where Turkey still keeps a 35,000-strong standing army, the report -if true – taking the wind out the sails that he would go there.

Speculation grew after Endy Zemenides, Executive Director of the Hellenic-American Leadership Council (HALC) told Greece’s state-run ERT radio that “Erdogan will do something big in the occupied territories on 20 July.”

The main scenario he had heard was of Erdogan proclaiming the annexation of the north to make it part of Turkey after he and Turkish-Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar rejected any hope of reunification, demanding instead that the United Nations and world accept the occupied territory as a republic.

Erdogan, the report said, will instead be going to Iran on July 19.