Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades has said that Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu never referred either publicly or in private to the abolition of guarantees in Cyprus, adding that left-wing party leader Andros Kyprianou who met recently with Cavusoglu has not informed him about such references by the Turkish FM.

Invited to comment on Kyprianou’s statements that Cavusoglu outlined to him some preconditions under which the Turkish side could accept the full abolition of the guarantees and asked whether Kyprianou informed him about this, Anastasiades said he was not informed on this and that he did not want to comment on statements without being informed about them.

Asked if Cavusoglu had left open the possibility of the full abolition of guarantees during the negotiations in Crans Montana , Anastasiades said that the Turkish FM never made such a statement either publicly or in private, adding that he was not aware of what Cavusoglu told to AKEL General Secretary about this.

Kyprianou did not inform me about what was exactly discussed regarding any preconditions and which these preconditions are and whether they depend or not on the Republic of Cyprus, Anastasiades said, adding that he expects to be updated on this issue.

Responding to another question, Anastasiades said that Cavusoglu insisted in Crans Montana that the guarantees “should continue for 15 or 10 years if we ‘behaved appropriately’, with a review clause, which means that if the other side did not give its consent guarantees would never be terminated, and so this was not a sunset clause.”

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively.