Turkish side emphasizes guarantee system ahead of key Cyprus conference

ANKARA

AA photo

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has stressed the importance of the guarantees system and emphasized that the Turkish side will not accept pre-conditions voiced by Greek Cyprus ahead of the crucial upcoming meeting in Crans-Montana in Switzerland on June 28.

Çavuşoğlu met his Turkish Cypriot counterpart Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu on June 19 for discussions ahead of the conference, which will host Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Akıncı and Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, along with Turkey, Greece and the U.K. as guarantor powers and the EU in an observer capacity. 

Security and guarantees, territory, administration and power-sharing, property and four rights on freedom of citizens of the Republic of Turkey in Cyprus will all be discussed simultaneously in the conference, Çavuşoğlu said in a joint press conference with Ertuğruloğlu. 

“I would like to underline again that a guarantee system that does not include the unilateral intervention of our motherland will not be a guarantee system and that we are extremely determined and persistent in this regard as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus government,” Ertuğruloğlu stated.

The Eastern Mediterranean island has been divided since 1974 when a Greek coup was followed by violence against the island’s Turks, and Ankara’s intervention as a guarantor power. 

Akıncı and Anastasiades have been involved in reunification talks to create a federal state since May 2015. 

The pair met several times in Geneva last year, but their last meeting in February was fraught with controversy over a Greek Cypriot decision to introduce a commemoration of the 1950 Enosis referendum on unification with Greece. 

Both sides had agreed on most of the issues in the reunification deal but the sticking points, including a security and guarantees system, remain unresolved. 

“A reunification deal should grant necessary guarantees with regards to Turkey-EU ties and EU-Unified Cyprus relations,” Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said on June 19 after his meeting with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. 

Turkey and Greece agreed to be in constant dialogue in the upcoming period in order to prevent crises and tensions before they erupt, Tsipras said at the same press conference.