Turkey indicates readiness to discuss security issues to Cyprus solution: newspaper

Turkey has indicated it's readiness to discuss thorny security issues that could facilitate a solution of the long standing Cyprus problem.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in a interview with a Greek Cypriot daily on Sunday that Turkey is willing to discuss the guarantees issue which Greek Cypriots consider a necessary prerequisite for a solution.

"We understand that for a lasting solution to be reached the security concerns of the Greek Cypriots must also be satisfied," Cavusoglu told "Phileleftheros" newspaper.

The 1960 Treaty of Guarantee accorded to former colonial power Britain and also to Turkey and Greece the status of guarantor powers for the independence of Cyprus.

Turkey invoked the Treaty of Guarantee to justify its action to send its army to Cyprus in 1974 and controlled the northern one third of the island, reacting to a coup against which was organized by the military rulers of Greece at the time.

Cyprus's President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci have been engaged in negotiations since May 2015, aimed at reaching an agreement to reunify the eastern Mediterranean island under a federal umbrella.

Anastasiades said on Sunday that international coincidence is propitious for a solution that could be reached by the end of this year.

But he said that an agreement which will preserve the 1960 guarantees arrangements would stand no chance to be approved in a plebiscite by the Greek Cypriots, who comprise 80 percent of the population.

He has also made it known that all Turkish forces in northern part of the Cyprus island must start withdrawing from there from the first day of a solution.

Cavusoglu also said in his interview that Turkey will not be "very flexible" on the issue of guarantees and other security issues.

The Turkish foreign minister said the guarantees and security issues should be discussed at the end of the negotiations, after other important internal issues will have been agreed upon.

He said the proper forum is a five-party conference bringing together the three guarantor countries and the two Cypriot communities.

Anastasiades was reserved when he was invited to comment on Cavusoglu's statements.

He pointed out that the long-standing policies by Turkey on Cyprus are still in place, adding that Turkey has to do a lot before an overall settlement to the Cyprus problem can be reached.

"These policies do not meet serious concerns of the vast majority of Greek Cypriots," he said.

Cavusoglu also said in his interview that Turkey will bear its share of the cost for a Cyprus solution, which has provisionally been estimated at 25 billion euros, well above the annual Cypriot economy.

He said that the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank must help, as the countries involved in the issue cannot alone bear the cost of a solution. Endit