No: 162, 20 July 2016

We deplore the statements of Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias published today (20 July) on the web page of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Greece on the Cyprus Peace Operation of 20 July 1974.

The Greek Foreign Minister’s efforts towards establishing irrelevant linkages in his statement between the coup attempt in Turkey on 15 July 2016 and Turkey’s guarantor state status regarding the whole of the Island of Cyprus emanating from the 1960 Treaties of Guarantee and Alliance is beyond the boundaries of logic and reason and amounts to an ill-advised endeavour.

In the aftermath of the heinous coup attempt, Turkey expects her neighbour Greece to abstain from such unfortunate statements which aim to take advantage of the present situation, and to act in line with the friendly and neighbourly relations and within the necessary spirit of democratic solidarity.

By an unfortunate coincidence, on the 15th of July of the year 1974, Nikos Sampson, the leader of EOKA terrorist organization, staged a bloody coup on the Island with the support of the Greek military junta with a view to annexing the Island to Greece. In response to this attempt for the complete overthrow of the constitutional order in Cyprus, Turkey intervened and re-established security on the basis of the Treaties of Guarantee and Alliance.

It is obvious that the statement of the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs has been made with the concern of obscuring Greece’s historical role and responsibility in the coup attempts staged in Cyprus by the Greek military junta, the systematic oppression against Turkish Cypriots between 1963-1974 and numerous humanitarian tragedies including the displacement of thousands of persons from both peoples as a result of those actions.

On this occasion, we once again strongly emphasize that we expect Greece, as the other Motherland and Guarantor State in Cyprus, to approach this issue with a sense of responsibility necessary in this critical period of the comprehensive settlement negotiations on the Island.