Greece Slams Statements By Turkish FM to EU Commissioner on Cyprus Issue

Dr. Davutoglu (Photo: Wikipedia)

The Greek Foreign Ministry denied statements by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to the effect that talks had begun at a community representative level on the Cyprus issue. Responding to press questions, ministry spokesman Konstantinos Koutras said that there were erroneous references made by Davutoglu following his meeting with European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Fule, in Ankara, concerning the results of the Sept. 23 meeting he had with his Greek counterpart Evangelos Venizelos in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

     "As government Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos has repeatedly stressed, Greece"  in response to a relevant request from the President of the Republic of Cyprus, and in order to facilitate direct contact between the Greek Cypriot negotiator and the Turkish government“ agreed to a meeting, on the corresponding level, of the Secretary General of the Greek Foreign Ministry with the negotiator for the Turkish Cypriot community, which is provided for by the 1960 Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus, and not, of course, with a representative of the pseudo-state," Koutras clarified.

Such meetings, he added, "on the highest level, in fact, of the President of the Republic of Cyprus with the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community, take place very frequently, without ever raising an issue of indirect recognition of the pseudo-state, which is, in any case, prohibited by the relevant explicit resolution of the UN Security Council."

He concluded by noting that Venizelos "has also repeatedly stressed, these meetings neither constitute an indirect quadrilateral conference, nor prefigure such a thing, which has been ruled out by the Cypriot and Greek governments, which respect and support the UN Secretary General's mission of good offices."

(AMNA)