Greece: Turkey’s two-state solution demand for Cyprus ‘unacceptable’

Turkey’s demand for a two-state solution in Cyprus is “unacceptable” and “undermines all efforts to resume negotiations for resolving the Cyprus issue in the framework of UN resolutions,” Greece said on Tuesday, on the 39th anniversary of illegal declaration of a “state” in the Turkish-occupied north part of the island.

“The unilateral declaration of the pseudostate in the occupied sections of Cyprus has been irrevocably condemned by the UN Security Council resolutions 541/1983 and 550/1984,” the Greek foreign ministry said in an announcement.

Thirty-nine years after the illegal declaration, “no state accepts or recognises any legal or international status for this entity,” the ministry added.

This was confirmed at the recent Summit of the Organisation of Turkic States, where Turkey had to accept a downgrading of the occupied north’s participation in the summit “in the capacity of an ‘entity’,” the announcement said.

“Our aim is to achieve an agreed solution on the basis of UN Security Council resolutions and the European acquis.”

Cyprus was split along ethnic lines when Turkey invaded 48 years ago, following a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Only Turkey recognizes a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence in the island’s northern third, where it maintains more than 35,000 troops.