Clerides: we cannot rely on the treaties of the past

By Charlie Charalambous

LASTING peace in Cyprus depends on increased guarantees of a future federal state that do not rely on the treaties of the past President Clerides said in New York yesterday.

During a speech to the Council of Foreign relations, Clerides slammed Rauf Denktash’s confederation proposal, saying he would not agree to any solution that would reduce Cyprus into a Greek and Turkish protectorate.

“I want my country to be a federal, independent republic,” Clerides said.

The president also took a swipe at the old guarantee power system when he said that Turkey, Greece and Britain had failed to fulfil their obligations.

“Whatever solution we have to find must not contain the mistakes of the past.”

Clerides added that a new internationally endorsed arrangement to ensure Cyprus sovereignty must be in place to prevent the island becoming a protectorate.

“A repetition of the treaties of the past will not prevent this from happening.”

The demilitarisation proposal and the idea of an international peace force on the island were again put forward by Clerides as a way of breaking the peace process deadlock.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides and Greek government spokesman Demetris Reppas yesterday allayed fears that Spain, Italy and France were trying to derail Cyprus’ EU accession process by proposing that a solution must come before full entry.

Reppas said any objection to decisions made during the Luxembourg and Cardiff summits were neither “practically feasible or politically correct.”

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.