Erdogan visit Varosha unconfirmed

TURKISH Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will pay an official visit to mark the 38th anniversary of the Turkish invasion on July 20 and visit the fenced-off town of Varosha, it was rumoured yesterday in the Turkish Cypriot daily Kibris Postasi.

Official sources refused to confirm or deny the rumours. However, Kibris Postasi’s editor told the Cyprus Mail yesterday he had run the story of Erdogan’s upcoming visit to the island and Varosha after talking with officials at the Turkish Foreign Ministry. He said however his conversations with Ankara officials had been “semi-official” and were “yet to be confirmed”.

Weight was added to Kibris Postasi’s rumours with the news that a major cleaning up operation was currently underway in and around the fenced-off area of Varosha.

The fate of Varosha remains a hot issue in negotiations aimed at reuniting Cyprus as it is regarded as a bargaining chip with which the Turkish Cypriots might prize concessions from the Greek Cypriot side. Some analysts believe Erdogan may offer Varosha’s return to the Greek Cypriots as a way of breaking the deadlock in current reunification talks.

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.