GENEVA (AP) – Turkey must continue to underwrite the security of Cyprus, even if there’s a deal reunifying the island that’s divided along ethnic Greek and Turkish lines, Turkey’s president said Friday.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said no arrangement to safeguard the two communities from possible hostilities if peace breaks down can be made without Turkey’s involvement.
But he didn’t rule out a complete pullout of thousands of soldiers that Turkey keeps on Cyprus as long as Greece, which also deploys a small troop contingent on the island, does the same.
“For Turkish soldiers to withdraw from there completely is out of the question,” Erdogan said in Istanbul after Friday prayers. “If such a thing is being considered, then we said both sides’ soldiers need to be completely withdrawn.”
Erdogan’s spokesman, however, said that a few hundred troops should remain after reunification in line with a previous, failed U.N.-brokered plan.