Kotzias: monitoring mechanisms should replace guarantees

President Nicos Anastasiades outlined his previous proposal on security at the opening session of the Crans-Montana conference, arguing that the island’s ills stemmed from the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee.

Sources quoted by the Cyprus News Agency said the president also referred to the role the EU could play and the need for the UN to take part in the implementation of the solution.

The solution’s provisions, he added according to the sources, should provide security and inspire respect.

His proposal on security and guarantees provides for a transitional period to be agreed, and a multinational police force established with the aim of deterring or addressing any threats to the safety of either Greek or Turkish Cypriots.

It also provides for the establishment of a trilateral Pact of Friendship between Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus, which “can form the basis of the solid foundations for the future relationship of the three countries”.

For his part Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias tabled a proposal on the abolition of the Treaty of Guarantee and of intervention rights, proposing a monitoring and agreement implementation mechanism be put in place, diplomatic sources said.

The Greek FM said it has to be agreed who will take part in this mechanism and pointed out that it would be a paradox for the present guarantor powers to take part.

Someone who is called on to evaluate could not at the same time be the one under evaluation, he added.

Kotzias is also said to have thanked the United Nations for their effort to reach a solution of the problem and spoke of a history which should not incarcerate as a prison but rather act as a school.

The main question which ought to be answered according to the Greek foreign minister, the same sources said, is “what state do we want?”.

He stressed that the solution should lead to a normal state, without guarantees and intervention rights, which are colonial remnants.

 

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.