NICOSIA, Cyprus: The chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee says the retrograde vision of Turkeys president to cement Cyprus ethnic divide by striving for a two-state deal is wrong for all Cypriots.
Robert Menendez, a Democratic senator from New Jersey, said a peace accord based for Cyprus on two separate states flies in the face of U.N. Security Council resolutions as well a decades-old arrangement between Greek and Turkish Cypriot negotiators to reunify Cyprus as a federation.
Speaking after receiving Cyprus highest honor the Grand Collar of the Order of Makarios III from President Nicos Anastasiades at a ceremony Monday, Menendez said Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots could strike a reunification deal if left to negotiate on their own.
Cyprus has been divided into a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north and a Greek Cypriot south where the islands internationally recognized government is seated since 1974, when Turkey invaded following a coup aiming at union with Greece.
Only Turkey recognizes a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence and maintains more than 35,000 troops in the north.
Nearly half a century of U.N.-backed peace talks have failed to produce a mutually acceptable deal. Turkey contends that talks for a federation-based deal have run their course and that an agreement based on two states is now the only way forward.
Menendez has been a vocal proponent of negotiations and a strident critic of what Greek Cypriots say are Turkeys attempts to steer the talks toward achieving its ambition for regional control by keeping a permanent troop presence on the island and the right to militarily intervene.
My goal is to see the last Turkish soldier leave the island, Menendez said.
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