Roundup: Demands raised by Erdogan in Cyprus not reflected in Turkish Cypriot map: Cypriot spokesman
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E-mail Xinhua, January 18, 2017
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's new territorial claims in Cyprus are not actually reflected in a map on territorial adjustments submitted by the Turkish Cypriot side in the reunification negotiations concerning the eastern Mediterranean island, a Cypriot government spokesman said Tuesday.
Erdogan caused a stir among United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU) and governments involved in efforts to solve the long-standing Cyprus problem when he said that if Greek Cypriots wanted the return of an occupied city they would have to surrender additional territory elsewhere.
"If Greek Cypriots want to return to Famagusta, they have to link Kokkina with Morphou and give this area to the Turkish Cypriots," Erdogan said.
Kokkina is a tiny Turkish Cypriot military enclave on the northwestern coast of Cyprus, and Morphou is a city about 30 km to the east that was occupied by Turkey's troops who landed in Cyprus in 1974, in response to a coup by the military rulers of Greece at the time.
Linking Kokkina and Morphou would mean creating a 15-km corridor along the northwestern coast of the island which is inhabited by Greek Cypriots and lies within the territory controlled by the Cypriot government.
Cypriot government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said Erdogan's claim on this region was not reflected on a map Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci tabled at the negotiations in Geneva less than 24 hours before Erdogan's statements.
Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades also tabled a map reflecting the Greek Cypriots' claims on territory.
Famagusta is a city on the east coast of Cyprus occupied in 1974, which has been fenced off since then and turned into a ghost town, after its 50,000 inhabitants fled the city.
Technocrats from the two Cypriot communities, the EU and the UN, and also Greece, Turkey and Britain, which have guarantee rights under treaties dating back to 1960, are scheduled to meet on Wednesday in the Swiss mountain resort of Mont Peleren for three days of talks in a bid to hammer out new security arrangements for Cyprus.
A breakthrough in their negotiations will open the way to a final deal, again bringing together the two Cypriot communities under a federal state. Endit
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