The long-standing Cyprus issue took center-stage in Greece’s Parliament on Tuesday morning with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras briefing MPs over the recent – and ultimately failed – UN-brokered negotiations in Switzerland between the Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot communities, as well as the trio of guarantor powers: Greece, Turkey and the UK.
Tsipras’ comments from Parliament’s podium come amid very high-profile official statements by the leadership of the Republic of Cyprus – which include the Greek Cypriot side’s representatives – and the Greek foreign ministry, all pointing to Ankara’s refusal to eschew its “interventionist role” on the island or remove occupation troops from the divided east Mediterranean island. These were the main reasons cited by Nicosia and Athens as leading to the latest deadlock in negotiations.
“It appeared that Turkey does not have the intention of committing to a solution that will allow a reunited Cyprus, one that is truly independent and sovereign, in other words, a solution without the right of intervention by third countries, or even with the gradual withdrawal of the occupation (Turkish) army.”
Tsipras and main opposition New Democracy (ND) leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis also stressed that the Republic of Cyprus, as an independent country and a member of the EU and Euro zone, has every right to exploit its resources. The statement days ahead of exploratory drilling in a block of Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in a sea region southeast of the island, and close to a discovered natural gas deposit in the Egyptian EEZ.
Ankara’s latest saber-rattling revolves around a claim that the sovereign Republic of Cyprus cannot exploit its resources without taking into account the Turkish Cypriot side, which is mostly based in the one-third of the island’s territory occupied by the Turkish military since the summer of 1974.
All of the Greek governments since 1975 have demanded a solution to the Cyprus based on a fair and viable solution based on UN resolutions.
