Turkish Cypriots rely on Ankara as guarantor: President Eroğlu

NICOSIA – Anadolu Agency

Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroğlu gestures as he arrives for a meeting with Cypriot President Anastasiades, Feb 11. AFP photo

The president of Turkish Cyprus has said Turkey should continue to be the “guarantor of the peace of Turkish Cypriots” on the long-divided island, amid re-launched negotiations with the Greek side.      

President Derviş Eroğlu said the Turkish side was “not obliged” to sign any deal that does not provide the security and peace of its citizens.   

“We are seeking an agreement by which Turkish Cypriots see their future in this land,” Eroğlu told reporters.

After an almost two-year-long pause, Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot leaders held their first meeting in early February, issuing a joint declaration that outlines the way forward for a solution to the crisis that has gripped the island for half a century.

Negotiations over Cyprus are set to resume after a 2004 deal put forward by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to reunify the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot communities was defeated by a negative vote in the Greek Cypriot administration.

The joint declaration announced by the U.N. mission in Cyprus on Feb. 11 said a settlement between the two sides “will be based on a bi-communal, bi-zonal federation with political equality” after the presidents of Turkish and Greek parties met in U.N. buffer zone in Nicosia.