Both Greece and Turkey have traded blows with talks set to continue over the divided island of Cyprus.
ADVERTISEMENTBoth Greece and Turkey have traded blows with talks set to continue over the divided island of Cyprus.
Turkey says Greece and the Greek Cypriots are responsible for the abrupt end to negotiations between the various leaders in Geneva.
Technical discussions will start in Switzerland on January 18. But Greece’s foreign minister told Euronews many differences remain.
“Security guarantees, intervention in politics and the presence of the troops is at the heart of the Cyprus issue. The Greek government wants a solution to this amongst other things. This means the maximum of rights for the Turkish Cypriots and the maximum feeling of security for the Greek Cypriots. This means they (the Turkish troops) have to go,” Nikos Kotzias, the Greek foreign minister, said in an interview.
“That is, they should leave. Not many [people] like this idea and this is why every time there is a meeting on Cyprus they blame me since I represent this line, which is the line of the Greek government in consultation with the Cypriots.”
“[It is] Not only the Turkish side, there are other international actors who find it interesting to have some kind of occupation in Cyprus because their interests coincide with those of the Turks.”
Immediately after the conference, Turkish President Erdogan made statements saying that the troops would never leave Cyprus.
Asked about how fertile he thought the field was for an arrangement to emerge from the next meeting, Kotzias said:
“I know that if someone wants a solution or not, this will be seen when the core of the problem is discussed. If someone does not want a solution, he may not allow the discussions to get to this point so as not to show his true intentions. We will reach this point and Turkey will have to show its real intentions. Does it want a solution or does it want a legitimate cover for its illegal acts?”