Turkish Foreign Minister demands guarantees and military on Cyprus

Mr. Cavusoglu effectively undermines the process

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey would out-rightly reject the prospect of withdrawing its military forces from the northern part of the island of Cyprus, during talks at Crans-Manotana in Switzerland on the Cypriot issue. Reacting to the news released by protohema.gr contributor Michalis Ignatiou that Mr. Cavusoglu said he would retain an army in Cyprus and use it he saw fit, the Turkish Foreign Minister said that “zero army and zero zero guarantees was a dream”. He said: “We came with good will. We know what we want. We’ve announced our red lines. A decision on the final solution must be made this week. We are showing flexibility. However, we did not see any result. There may be other reasons for this. There are still leaks. In order to reach a solution, the other side must respond to our positive steps”. He said that we [Turkey] did not go to Switzerland to satisfy the other side, while he attacked the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades labeling his proposals as flimsy that did not warrant the alignment of the Turkey.