In an interview on television channel NTV on Thursday, Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s Foreign Minister, told Greek Cypriots ”to wake up from a sleep, or give it up if it is a dream, about Turkish troop withdrawal”.

Cavusoglu noted that he does not want to mock or insult Greek Cypriots, but added that negotiations to solve the Cyprus issue on the basis of ”no troops, no security, no guarantees” are impossible.

Greek Cypriots should wake up from a sleep, or give it up if it is a dream, about Turkish troops withdrawal, I’m not mocking them or insulting them but no troops, no security, no guarantees are impossible and we should negotiate based on this fact, says Turkish Foreign Minister pic.twitter.com/3c9caV6AZY

— Nordic Monitor (@nordicmonitor) January 11, 2019

Speaking with the Turkish news show about a hypothetical future round of talks to solve the issue of division on the island, Cavusoglu said that ”any negotiation should be based on facts”. As far as the Foreign Minister is concerned, the facts are that Turkey will not accept a solution in which Turkish army troops leave the island.

For its part, the Greek-Cypriot side argues that a viable solution cannot be based on the anachronistic model of ”guarantors.” As is now stands, the nations of Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom are Cyprus’ guarantor powers.

This unique political “solution” was created according to the terms of the “Treaty of Guarantee of 1960” between the Republic of Cyprus, Greece, Turkey and the U.K.

Source: http://greece.greekreporter.com/category/greek-news/tourism/