Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades expressed on Wednesday his readiness to engage into dialogue for a Cyprus settlement within the framework and parameters that have been set out by the UN Secretary General himself and are determined by the EU values and principles.
He also said that he has made it clear to the UN Secretary General that the aim is to establish a normal state, as all the other UN and EU member states.
Addressing an event in Nicosia, commemorating the anniversary of October 28,1940, when the Greeks refused to surrender to the powers of the Axis, Anastasiades said that he has also made clear that in order to avoid any adventures as the ones in Geneva or Crans-Montana, where talks ended inconclusively, good preparation is required by all those who can intervene towards this direction.
There must be such a preparation either by the Secretary General himself or with the help of the Security Council five permanent members so that “when we go there we will know Ankara`s real intentions and not the ones that some people imply. In this way we will at last bring peace and our country will flourish in conditions of security.”
“We are not concerned about only one of the communities but we care about both communities because if they both thrive, then this will be a sound foundation for prosperity, cooperation and peace that will be based on the Cypriots` interests and will not just serve any third countries by being under their custody and more specifically under the custody of Turkey,” the President pointed out.
Turkey, the President said, if it wants to guarantee the security of the Turkish Cypriots, as it alleges it does, can do so. “Turkey is only 60 kilometres from Cyprus. Who would dare ever repeat the mistakes of the past which led to the 1974 Turkish invasion? Nobody, of course. And Turkey knows that,” he explained.
The 1960 treaties, which established the Republic of Cyprus and are still in place, stipulate that Turkey, the UK and Greece are the three guarantor powers of Cyprus` independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty. Turkish troops invaded Cyprus in July 1974, following a short-lived coup against the legal government of the Republic, using as a pretext this clause and claiming that its troops intervened to protect the Turkish Cypriots. Some 40,000 Turkish troops continue to occupy Cyprus` northern part to this day.
Anastasiades went on to say that the Greek Cypriot side had suggested many alternative ways and solutions to secure the interests both of the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots and indicated how the Security Council, the EU and the Council of Europe could intervene. There was, however, an insistence from the other side that did not serve the interests of the Turkish Cypriots but instead it addressed Turkey`s strategic interests.
The President stressed that the Greek Cypriot side will continue to forge alliances with consistence, adding that “we will bring peace in Cyprus at last, as we have brought about the recovery of the economy.”
He said that since May 2015 an intensive dialogue began to abolish the unacceptable status quo and create conditions that would allow Cyprus to get rid of Turkey`s occupation. He noted that “unfortunately, despite our will and our determination to create the conditions that would lead to a strategic agreement and would create prospects for a modern state, the whole effort in Crans-Montana failed and this is exclusively due to the intransigent and inflexible position of Turkey which it maintained, insisting on guarantee and intervention rights and the establishment of a military base with the presence of Turkish troops on the island for ever.”
Anastasiades also noted that the Turkish Cypriots, during the negotiations, wanted to secure that for every single decision to be taken by the central government, they would have to give at least one positive vote to each one of these decisions.
This would have led, undoubtedly, to a state within the state, in essence a protectorate, a state under custody where decisions would have been dependent on Ankara`s will, he added.
He said that the Greek Cypriot side insists on creating the necessary conditions so that Turkey is convinced by friends and all those who can exert pressure to realise that facilitating a Cyprus settlement would serve the interests of both the Turkish Cypriots as well as the Greek Cypriots, in addition to serving Ankara`s own interests.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. The latest round of UN-backed negotiations, in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, ended inconclusively at the beginning of July 2017.