Greece and Cyprus are not divergent in their opinions, nor does Greece have an “inflexible” position on the Cyprus, an announcement from the Greek Prime Minister’s office said on Sunday, after media reports abounded that Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias was at fault for the decisions made in the Geneva talks last week.
The statement added that the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is in constant contact and support the attempts being made by the President of the Republic of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades, “to find a just and viable solution the Cyprus problem, based on the UN resolutions, without guarantees and occupation troops, and to the benefit of all Cypriot people.”
Referring to the Greek Foreign Minister, the statement added: “The Foreign Minister is working satisfactorily, in negotiations, and on the strategy that the Greek government has decided.”
In recent days, media reports have blamed Kotzias for the “derailment” of talks in Geneva, with Politico magazine citing sources.
The article further states that at the next meeting on a political level Greece will be represented by PM Alexis Tsipras, due to Kotzias’ stance.
Turkish propaganda
In a post on Twitter in Greek, Kotzias said that media reports on this issue were “Turkish propaganda”, which have done nothing more than to support “Turkish nationalism”.
In an interview to ANA-MPA, commenting on the reports Kotzias said: “It is reasonable for the Turkey’s supporters to consider that a success in Geneva would have been for us to surrender to the Turkish positions, legitimise their intervention rights, and their ability to own part of Cyprus. WE have a different opinion: We must apply European and international law, give Cyprus its sovereignty, and the maximum rights be afforded to the Turkish Cypriots, along with the maximum feeling of safety to the Greek Cypriots.
“There have been a number of distortions surrounding the facts, eg they say that because technical teams begin meeting next week, we interrupted the process. It is not true. Both the UN Secretary General, President Anastasiades, and I had proposed to continue the conference on Friday at a political level, as it was planned. Why should have it been continued at a political level? So the technical teams could receive instructions for their work.”
He added that it was the Turkish side that abandoned the negotiations, saying “they did not have time for political consultations.”
Meanwhile, Turkey has also not shown a change in its position on the security and guarantees issue discussed on Thursday, with officials in Ankara continuing to support the continuation of guarantees.
In statements on Friday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan commented that guarantees need to continue for the safety of the Turkish Cypriot people, following similar comment by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who was present at Thursday’s conference on Cyprus.
Likewise, Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci has made similar comments on Sunday, during a memorial service for the first Vice-President of the Republic of Cyprus, Fazil Kucuk.
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