Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades has sent a letter to Turkey’s newly inaugurated President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan asking him to be “sincere” in his future statements about efforts to reunite the divided island of Cyprus, Turkish daily ‘Zaman’ reports.
Anastasiades sent the letter to Erdoğan through Greek Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos, who attended Erdoğan’s inauguration in Ankara on Thursday.
Erdoğan is due to pay his first foreign visit as president to North Cyprus on 1st September and then to regional ally Azerbaijan.
According to the Greek Cypriot media, Anastasiades asked Erdoğan to be sincere in his statements about Turkey’s resolve to help reunification efforts when he visits the Turkish side of the island.
In the letter, Anastasiades does not request a meeting with Erdoğan but instead calls for cooperation with Ankara in efforts to find a solution to the Cyprus problem, the reports said.
Cyprus has been divided into a Turkish north and an internationally recognised Greek south since 1974, when Turkey sent troops to the island to protect the Turkish Cypriot population in the wake of a coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece.
Talks between the Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders have so far yielded no progress toward ending the division of the island.
