Greece protests to British about Cyprus document

GREECE summoned the British ambassador to Athens yesterday to protest about the wording in a British document concerning Turkish-held northern Cyprus.

The Greek Foreign Ministry said it called in ambassador Simon Gass after London and Ankara signed a co-operation agreement that included a reference to the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus”.

EU-member Cyprus remains divided along ethnic lines since a failed coup in 1974 that was engineered by Athens with the aim of uniting the island with mainland Greece.

Turkey invaded the northern third in response and has occupied it ever since.

The Greek Cypriot government in Nicosia is the only internationally recognised authority on the island. Only Ankara recognises the breakaway northern region as a sovereign state.

“The meeting … was a strong demarche from the Greek side,” a source close to the meeting told Reuters.

“The ambassador assured the Greek side London had not changed its stance on Cyprus and does not recognise any authority other than the Greek Cypriot government.”

Talks aimed at reuniting the island have stalled since Greek Cypriots rejected a UN peace deal in a referendum in 2004. Turkish Cypriots voted in favour of it.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.