Gul was accompanied by wife Hayrunnisa, making her first public appearance as first lady, after having kept out of the spotlight amid strong objections by secularists to her Islamic headscarf.
Before leaving Ankara, Gul said he would meet Turkish Cypriot leaders to discuss the island's division and ways to strengthen ties between Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), which only Ankara recognizes.
"The promises the international community made to the Turkish Cypriot people are still remembered. But unfortunately, restrictions on the TRNC continue," said the president, who took office last month.
"We expect the international community to end those unjust practices as soon as possible," he said.
He was referring to European Union pledges to ease the economic isolation of the TRNC, as a reward for the overwhelming support of Turkish Cypriots for a UN peace plan to reunify Cyprus in April 2004.
The plan was killed off by a resounding "no" on the Greek Cypriot side, in a simultaneous referendum.
The outcome ensured that the Greek Cypriots - who represent the internationally-recognized government in the south - alone, joined the EU in May that year.
Cyprus remains a major stumbling block for Turkey's own EU membership bid, with Ankara accusing the Greek Cypriots of using their membership as a leverage to extract concessions on the island.
Turkey occupied the northern third of Cyprus in 1974, in response to an Athens-engineered Greek Cypriot coup in Nicosia, aimed at uniting the island with Greece. It still maintains about 40,000 troops in the TRNC.
Gul was to hold talks, later Tuesday, with Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat and other senior officials, and also address the Turkish Cypriot parliament Wednesday, before returning to Ankara.
The Cyprus foreign ministry condemned the visit, saying it was "another illegal action by Turkey, and a serious provocation against a member of the European Union."
It was a message "to those who were speculating or had illusions that the emergence of Mr. Gul to the presidency would mean, perhaps, some changes to Turkey's tactics and policies towards Cyprus," it said.
Gul, secular Turkey's first president with an Islamist past, was elected August 28 after four months of political tensions between army-backed secularist forces and the Islamist-rooted ruling party to which he belonged.
© 2007 Agence France-Presse
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