Greece is optimistic by nature, as is Cyprus, on the issue of resolving the Cyprus problem, the Government Spokesman of Greece, Pavlos Marinakis, said in an interview on Tuesday.
During his interview with SKAI radio, and asked about the Cypriot issue, Marinakis said that, Greece, was ‘optimistic by nature, as is Cyprus, in this matter.’ ‘Of course, the past makes us very hesitant’, he added, noting that the Turkish President’s statements about a two-state solution, was ‘completely contrary to the mood for a solution.’
‘As long as these are not reconfirmed and we go to the obvious, which are the Decisions of the United Nations Security Council for a bi-zonal bi-communal federation and the withdrawal of the occupation troops, then yes, we have every reason to be optimistic’, Marinakis said.
He also said that the Greek Government was waiting for the complete plan, noting that at the moment there was a description of the broader plan. ‘It is a given that we are discussing only one such solution, not only Gree
ce, Cyprus is Europe’, he added.
He also mentioned that an upcoming meeting in New York between the Turkish President and the Greek Prime Minister was in the plans.
Marinakis, commenting on the presence of Turkish navy ships off the Greek island of Kasos, in an area where an Italian vessel was carrying out surveys for laying an underwater cable to connect the electricity grids of Greece and Cyprus, said that Athens seeks to maintain the climate of dialogue, but that issues of internal politics, internal sovereignty, and of sovereign rights were not on the table.
Greece’s state broadcaster ERT reports that four Greek navy ships were sent in the area, and that moves were being made at all levels by the Greek Foreign Ministry to alleviate the situation.
ERT reported that the vessel’s surveys concern an area within the Greek territorial waters with only one point outside of it, at a distance of half a mile, but that, based on the 12-miles demarcation agreed between Greece and Egypt, this point also falls with
in the country’s exclusive economic zone.
Turkey has argued with a Navtex that the point where the survey is carried out, concerns the Turkish continental shelf and invoked the ‘Turkish-Libyan memorandum’, ERT reports.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres appointed María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar of Colombia as his personal envoy for Cyprus, to assume a Good Offices role on his behalf and search for common ground on the way forward in the Cyprus issue.
Source: Cyprus News Agency