FM Kotzias: Occupation troops must leave Cyprus immediately
- Written by E.Tsiliopoulos
"The Turkish occupation troops must leave from Cyprus" said Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias in an interview with the Sunday edition of Kathimerini newspaper, and explained "because, for practical reasons, the troops can't leave in a single day, the largest part of the Turkish army should leave immediately and the withdrawal of the rest of the troops to take place in a specific period and to have a deadline".
On the guarantees issue, Kotzias said that Greek-Cypriots and Greeks are focused on an effort to form a system of cooperation and friendship which will refer to Cyprus' cooperation with the two, former, as he said, guarantor powers but without any intervention right. Referring to Turkey's stance on the issue he noted that "their thought is at maturing stage" because he had met with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu many times and they have discussed the matter.
"We have not agreed but during the meeting with Turkish President Erdogan in New York we said to meet soon to discuss it. I have prepared a report on these issues and Cyprus' government agrees and this is the course we will follow because the Turkish-Cypriots will have immediate benefits from the unification and development of Cyprus Republic but we can't say the same for the Greek -Cypriots which are the withdrawal of the occupation troops, the return of the land and the agreements that will exist in the inner aspects".
On the context of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Kotzias said that they discussed some parametres on the solution of the refugees’ issues. "What Greece, Turkey and the European bodies must ensure is the implementation of the EU-Turkey agreement" said Kotzias.
On the Fyrom name issue Kotzias estimated that "after the general elections in Fyrom there will be initiatives for the solution of the name issue. So, after the elections deliberations should start between the Greek and Fyrom's Foreign Ministries and not leave the issue to thirds and of course with the assistance of UN mediator Matthew Nimetz.
Regarding the Confidence Building Measures with Fyrom, Kotzias said that they "helped in the reversal of Greece's image in Skopje according to which we wanted to dissolve the state. We believe that this state rightly exists and we want to survive and this is the reason I vetoed when sanctions against Fyrom were discussed in the European Union"
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