“The Turkish occupation troops must leave from Cyprus” said Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias in an interview with the Sunday edition of Kathimerini newspaper. Kotzias said the removal of troops would add to moving forward in the negotiating the end of the Cyprus problem, “because, for practical reasons, the troops can’t leave in a single day, the largest part of the Turkish army should leave immediately and the withdrawal of the rest of the troops to take place in a specific period and to have a deadline”.
Kotzias said that Greek-Cypriots and Greeks are focused on an effort to form a system of cooperation and friendship.
Referring to Turkey’s stance on the issue he noted that “their thought is at maturing stage” because he had met with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu many times and they have discussed the matter.
“We have not agreed but during the meeting with Turkish President Erdogan in New York we said to meet soon to discuss it. I have prepared a report on these issues and Cyprus’ government agrees and this is the course we will follow because the Turkish-Cypriots will have immediate benefits from the unification and development of the Cyprus Republic but we can’t say the same for the Greek-Cypriots until the withdrawal of the occupation troops, the return of the land and the agreements that will exist in the inner aspects”.
When asked how the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan related to each other on how to tackle the refugee issue, Kotzias said that they discussed some parameters on the solution of the refugee issue. “What Greece, Turkey and the European bodies must ensure is the implementation of the EU-Turkey agreement” said Kotzias.
(source: ana-mpa)
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