UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres saw a good opportunity at the Crans Montana conference on divided Cyprus in 2017 for reunification to be reached with the abolition of foreign guarantors from day one.
But, as he pointed out to then Foreign Minister of Greece Nicos Kotzia, the complete withdrawal of Turkish occupation troops from the island was not on the cards – at least not from day one.
This is what recently-released revealing UN minutes on the meeting between Guterres and Kotzias, dated July 6, 2017 at 5 pm record, Philenews reported on Thursday citing the official documents.
The meeting took place just before the dinner during which the attempt of the Secretary-General for an agreement to be reached had collapsed. Because the Turkish side did not mean what they were supposingly saying those days to Guterres.
Meanwhile, the Secretary-General had a second meeting on that same day with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu who made it clear that Turkey’s intention was not to withdraw its troops from the island.
Cyprus is divided since a 1974 invasion by Turkey which still maintains troops in the breakaway north in full violation of UN resolutions and international law.
Turkey and some opposition parties in Nicosia have tried to blame Nicosia over the collapse of yet another effort in the Swiss resort by the United Nations to reunite Cyprus.
