Greece hopes Ankara will adopt policy of normalization on Cyprus, FM Venizelos tells UN

NEW YORK

Greek Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos addresses the 68th session of the General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Sept. 27. AFP photo

Greece hopes that Ankara will pursue a “policy of normalization” regarding the Cyprus issue, Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos said during a speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 27.
 
“We hope that Ankara, at long last, will decide to pursue a new policy of normalization of its relations with the Republic of Cyprus. Such a Turkish policy would decisively facilitate the relaunching of intercommunal negotiations,” Venizelos told the audience a few days after a meeting with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu in which both diplomats reached an agreement to accelerate talks on the future of the divided island.
 
Ankara’s agreement to meet with Greek Cypriot leaders, and Athens’ receptiveness on holding talks with Turkish Cypriot negotiators, had generated talk of “indirect quartet meetings.”
 
Venizelos also met in New York with newly elected Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, and both expressed their readiness for a fresh and “well-prepared” dialogue. 
 
However, the Greek foreign minister said a just and viable solution regarding Cyprus would be a determining factor on the ties between Ankara and Athens. 
 
“Thirty-nine years after the 1974 Turkish military invasion of the island, the Cyprus problem, remains, first and foremost, an issue of illegal military occupation of well over a third of the territory of a UN and EU member state. A comprehensive and agreed settlement of this major international problem is a top priority for the foreign policy of Greece,” Venizelos said.