Turkey allowed to play the victim, says Anastasiades

President Nicos Anastasiades appeared disappointed on Friday that the lack of implementation of UN resolutions have allowed Turkey the audacity to pass itself off as a victim.

“I stand here before you, representing a country which, regrettably, still endures the consequences of the blatant violation of the fundamental principles of the United Nations, as a result of the 1974 illegal military invasion of Turkey and the ongoing occupation,” he said in his speech at the annual General Assembly meeting.

Anastasiades said that since then both the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council, have issued numerous decisions and resolutions, calling on Turkey to end the illegal occupation and withdraw its occupying troops, establishing at the same time the basis for reaching a comprehensive solution to the Cyprus problem.

“Decisions and resolutions which – in the absence of resolve and the necessary means for the implementation thereof – have led to the audacity of the invader who tries to be portrayed as a victim, instead of the perpetrator it actually is”.

The president further took aim at Turkish rhetoric putting forward a two-state solution.

He said, though it was not his intention to engage in a blame game, he could not ignore “the absurdity of the Turkish rhetoric, which lies in their claim that the efforts for a compromise have been exhausted and the focus should now be on reaching a settlement based on the so-called ‘realities on the ground’,” created by the Turkish invasion.

Turkey ousted Mustafa Akinci

The Cypriot president made word of Turkey’s “blatant interventions” in the occupied north, ousting the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community, referring to Mustafa Akinci, with whom a joint understanding was reached in November 2019 as to the principles which should guide the resumption of a new round of peace talks.

Anastasiades also said a compromise is now more difficult to reach, while new ideas put forward by the Greek Cypriot side, are blatantly rejected.

The president was referring to his proposals such as a decentralised federation and the invitation to the Turkish Cypriots to re-join the state institutions established by the 1960 Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus.

He argued that the latter “was meant, not as an alternative to the agreed basis of the settlement, but to ease the Turkish Cypriot community back into the state pending a final settlement, provided a strategic agreement is reached, thus, fully participating in the evolution of the Republic of Cyprus into a federal state”.

Concluding his speech, Anastasiades reassured the Assembly of his determination to set the negotiation process back on track, on the basis of the UN framework and the agreement reached by the two sides on November 25, 2019.

The agreement foresees a settlement based on a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation with political equality, as set out in relevant Security Council resolutions and in line with the EU principles.