Foreign Minister N. Kotzias' statements following his meeting with the UN Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Cyprus, E. B. Eide

N. KOTZIAS: We met with the UN Secretary-General's adviser on Cyprus, and I would like to remind you that the essence of the Cyprus problem is also the external aspect of the problem. It is the occupation of Cypriot territory by a third country. As a result, its solution is how, through diplomatic means, we will be able to restore the unified nature of the island, giving the maximum possible rights to every citizen of the island, regardless of which community or which of the three small minorities they come from, and at the same time providing maximum security for everyone, and particularly for the Greek Cypriots.

This is why we support – as we have supported to date – the continuation of these negotiations, the continuation of the search for a creative solution, bicommunal and bizonal, to the Cyprus issue.

It has become possible for us to continue seeking this solution thanks to the insistence of the Greek side that the negotiations on the Cyprus problem be open-ended negotiations, and I remind you that, a year ago, we were unfairly criticized by very many sides for this insistence of ours. If we hadn't pushed this through some time ago, the negotiations on the Cyprus issue would have ended.

I also want to remind you that Greece is dealing only with the international aspect of the Cyprus issue, mainly with the issue of guarantees and security, and that this matter is linked to the fact that Turkey needs and has to understand that it must withdraw its forces from Cyprus, that it cannot have rights of guarantee, rights of intervention over Cyprus.

Unfortunately, Turkey continues to promote its own needs and not the needs of Cyprus and its two communities and three minorities. Unfortunately, Turkey continues to promote interpolated demands like the so-called four freedoms, which concern its relationship with the European Union, and not the Cyprus issue.

Unfortunately, Turkey has never responded specifically to the proposals we have set out regarding the manner in which to regulate the international aspect of the Cyprus problem. It simply refuses to discuss this issue substantially with us. I hope that, at some point, Turkey will be prudent enough to talk to us so that we can prepare an International Conference in Geneva on the subject of Cyprus's security and of ridding Cyprus of the two Treaties of 1960, of Zurich and London, which are the Treaties of guarantees and of the so-called alliance.

Moreover, Turkey needs to stop seeing the Cyprus issue as a matter of its own geopolitical interests or its interests against the European Union. Turkey should accept that Cyprus must be transformed and function as a normal state; a state that is a member of the European Union and the UN.

I would also like to tell you that, in the process that has been followed to date, whenever the matter of security and guarantees was introduced, Turkey abandoned the dialogue.

I remind you that on the evening of Thursday, 12 January 2017, in Geneva, the Turkish Foreign Minister walked out on the talks, saying that he had more important matters than the Cyprus issue to deal with. Regardless of whether, after arriving back in Ankara, he falsely alleged that we had left, even though we were still there. You remember my response from Geneva. We are here, open to discussing things.

I think the narrow interests, the narrow mindsets that exist, on various sides should be subordinated to the need for international law to be respected, and that the proper rights should be given to the Cypriot people and to the Republic of Cyprus. Thank you very much.
JOURNALIST: Mr. Minister, Greece's stance on the guarantees and on security, which is what you stated earlier. Is it a stance that holds regardless of the content of the negotiations? That is, if the two sides agree, jointly, that they are prepared to accept either a transitional solution in the beginning, or the presence of a smaller force from both sides.

N. KOTZIAS: The matter of guarantees and security concerns two small treaties from the Treaty of Zurich. The one treaty is the treaty of guarantees, in which – in Turkey's view, and mistakenly, in our opinion – the right of intervention is established. I don't see how this treaty could be of a transitional or other nature. I mean, what are we to agree on? That for a period of time Turkey will have the right to intervene?

On the second, regarding the army, our stance is very, very simple and clear. The Turkish army must leave. Of course, every army that withdraws – as happened with the Soviet army leaving East Germany – needs and requires a timeframe for withdrawal.

JOURNALIST: So the Turkish army's leaving the next day isn't a condition for you...

N. KOTZIAS: I don't think like that. Condition or not. My thinking is that the solution to the Cyprus issue is the elimination of these two treaties. And in their place there can be a friendship agreement among the countries interested in the development of Cyprus and its protection from outside threats.

JOURNALIST: Was the climate of trust with Mr. Eide restored? How was the atmosphere? There was a lot of talk of late.

N. KOTZIAS: I always have interesting and rational conversations with Mr. Eide, which are constantly part of the discussions I have with the UN Secretary-General.

I think all sides have been made to understand that we have to focus on the resolution of the Cyprus problem, and not on safeguarding Turkey's geopolitical or European interests.

JOURNALIST: Did you invite him to come, Mr. Minister?

N. KOTZIAS: I called on Friday afternoon and invited him to come to Athens either the next day – this past Saturday – or on Monday.

It was a little late for him to make it on Saturday, and he came on Monday. It is my invitation and my initiative, in the framework, however, of a negotiation and a discussion being carried out by all sides.

Thank you very much.