‘We cannot fall into the trap of Turkey’s revisionist rhetoric’, president says

Cyprus cannot fall into the trap of “revisionist rhetoric” adopted by the Turkish president to serve his own purposes, President Nicos Anastasiades said on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters following a meal with the French ambassador, he was asked how the government was planning to handle Turkey’s aggressive rhetoric.

“With faith in international law, of course, and through diplomatic action,” he said, stressing that “everything you are watching unfold is against international law, against the UN Charter”.

Using as an example the exclusive economic zone dispute, “an unacceptable behaviour,” the president added that “when we suggest ways to deal with the issue through consultation, they choose to interpret international law as they see fit”.

Anastasiades was also called to comment on statements made on Monday by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu during a visit to the north.

In his statements, Cavusoglu said Turkey remained adamant on a two-state solution to the Cyprus issue, and dismissed the government’s proposal for Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) as an attempt to mislead the international community by repackaging old ideas, and an indirect way to secure the goal of “getting Varosha back”.

“Let me repeat that Varosha is part of ‘TRNC’ territory, and that the measures taken in the area’s reopening do not violate international law and are for the benefit of the peoples of the island,” Cavusoglu had said.

He also said he thought it was laughable that “Greek Cypriots think placing sunbeds on a beach is a threat to international security”.

To this, Anastasiades responded that as far as he was concerned, the usurpation of property was not a matter of sunbeds.

“They had 14 per cent of real estate property, and also hold 37 per cent of the island, but have the audacity to refer to it as ‘a sunbed or two’.

“It is the epitome of what we call revisionism,” he said. “A big idea based only on the political aspiration of the Turkish president”.