Cyprus Talks: Turkey proposes to keep guarantees for the island, Greek Cypriot kicks

Turkey has made a five point proposal regarding security and guarantees, at the ongoing Cyprus Conference in Crans-Montana, Switzerland on Wednesday, which include preserving the guarantees for the entire island, in the event of a solution.

Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades has however rejected the proposal saying “Turkey’s proposal did not satisfy us.”

Greek Foreign Minister Nicos Kotzias had proposed to abolish the guarantor system for the island while the Greek National Council is trying to decide what to do in the face of Turkey’s proposals. 

Reports say Ankara was prepared to withdraw a large number of troops and reduce them further within an agreed time-frame but did not however agree to the abolition of the Treaty of Guarantee. 

Turkey's recommendation regarding the Guarantees is as follows;
1) The existing Guarantee Agreement will be revised according to the new federal structure which will be based on the equality of the Turkish and Greek Cypriot founding states.

2) A number of soldiers will be withdrawn on the first day when the agreement in this framework is approved in the referendum and comes into force.

3) A monitoring committee will be established. The committee will have three guarantors and two members from the CYPRUS Turkish and CYPRUS Greek Cypriot constituent states and two from the federal state.

4) The functioning of the federal constitution and constitutional state constitutions shall be guaranteed.

5) If everything goes smoothly, the number of remaining soldiers on the island will be re-audited by 3 guarantor countries.

Speaking about the first day of the Cyprus Conference, UN Special Adviser Espen Barth Eide said it was a very constructive and good first day which had gone “beyond what we expected”. He said new ideas and proposals were heard from all sides.

During the first day of the conference, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey David Feltman tabled three questions which he said the discussion should focus on: 
-How the two sides envisage the day after a solution, 
-How the concerns of both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots on the issue of security will be addressed, and 
-How would its implementation be monitored.