CYPRUS: Turkey, Greece and Britain to discuss their position on peace talks

Britain will host in New York on Tuesday an informal trilateral meeting of Cyprus’ three guarantor powers to discuss the next steps on stalled reunification talks.

According to a diplomatic source, at 1:00 pm (local time) British Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will attend a working lunch at the British Permanent Representation at the UN.

Greece, Turkey and the UK are the so-called guarantor powers of Cyprus’ sovereignty, under the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee that gave the island independence from British rule.

The last round of UN-sponsored talks collapsed in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana over the issue of security in a post-solution Cyprus.

The last talks aimed at reunifying the island as a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation collapsed in Switzerland a year ago after the UN chief failed to get the parties to agree on a post-settlement security arrangement for Cyprus.

It was the first time Cyprus talks involved the guarantor powers of Britain, Greece and Turkey.

Under the island’s 1960 treaty of independence, the three countries secured intervention rights to safeguard the island’s sovereignty, but the Greek Cypriots want these scrapped while the Turkish Cypriots are reluctant to do so.

The other stumbling block is that President Nicos Anastasiades wants all Turkish troops to leave the island after a solution is reached while Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci is opposed to this idea.

Turkey has made it clear it is unwilling to withdraw all its 35,000 troops from Cyprus while it is also reluctant to relinquish its intervention rights.

Both Greece and Britain are ready to drop their guarantor power status as part of an agreed solution by all parties involved.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied 37% of its territory.  Numerous UN-backed negotiations, aiming at reuniting the island under a federal roof, have failed to yield results.