Turkish army must withdraw from Cyprus, says Cypriot president

Cypriot president Demetris Christofias has called on Turkey to remove half of its army from Cyprus as an “expression of goodwill” to help reunify the island.

In Brussels on Thursday to attend the summit of EU leaders, Christofias said, “The Turkish army is an army of a regional superpower, with 43,000 well-armed soldiers. Turkey should remove more than half of its troops in Cyprus even before the solution of the problem.”

Christofias, who represents the Greek Cypriot community, said that he was optimistic a solution could be reached soon. “It’s really time to solve the problem. The continuation of the status quo is harming the Cypriots.”

He announced that he will meet with Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat later this month, and again in July, to discuss progress on preparing the ground for fully fledged negotiations between the two sides.

Since March, both sides have set up working groups and technical committees to discuss how to move forward, and April saw the opening of the symbolic border crossing in Ledra Street in the capital, Nicosia, site of the contentious ‘green line’ that effectively divided the island in two for decades.

Christofias advocated the reunification of Cyprus into what he calls a “bizonal, bicommunal federal state” but the exact form that state will take remains moot. However, the Turkish Cypriot leadership frames the discussion in terms of “two constituent states” as Talat described in the March issue of Parliament Magazine.

“Our aim is to establish a new partnership state based on the political equality of the two peoples and the equal status of the two constituent states. These are our indispensable priorities,” wrote Talat.

For Christofias, the first step is the demilitarisation of Cyprus and the removal of ties to the so-called guarantors, as they are known under a 1960 treaty between Cyprus, Turkey, Greece and the UK. “Let them leave us alone and free to handle the affairs of this island.

“We are in favour of the demilitarisation of the unified republic of Cyprus. Many times we have agreed that colonisation of occupied areas isn’t beneficial for the people of Cyprus.”

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