President Akinci’s spokesman Baris Burcu, yesterday described as untrue, the recent statements made by the South’s Minister of Defence, Christoforos Fokaides, who argued that a “professional joint military” will be established after the solution.
Turkish daily Sabah had published the story, citing Greek Cypriot daily Phileleftheros as its source. It said that:
“According to the daily’s interview with Fokaides, both sides had agreed to form a professional armed forces in which current active duty officers will continue their in their posts and compulsory military service will be abolished on the island. Citing the United Nations as his source, the minister said leaders of both sides of the divided island agreed in principle to form a joint military”.
Burcu denied the above statement and said that “such a decision was not taken by the leaders”. “An effort is being made to bring this onto the agenda and create the impression that there is a common approach on this. This is not right and this issue is among those to be discussed in the appropriate time”, Burcu said.
President Akinci’s spokesman also added that the reports published in the Greek Cypriot press saying that the two leaders will issue a joint statement after their meeting on 27th May, covering the issues where the two leaders had reached an agreement at the Cyprus negotiations so far, is also untrue.
Referring to the reports published in the Greek Cypriot press and the Turkish Cypriot press from, time to time, about the issue of security and guarantees, Burcu reiterated that this issue will be discussed at the latest stage of the negotiation process.
Detay
