Treaty of Guarantee

By George Gilson

The President of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades is to hold talks with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in New York today to discuss a restart of substantial Cyprus talks and ways to transcend the huge divide between the Turkish Cypriot and Turkey on the one hand and the Republic of Cyprus and Greece on the other.

“Turkey has been illegally occupying Cyprus for nearly 50 years violating the Treaty of Guarantee which established and guaranteed Cyprus’ independence”

At 6 a.m. on July 20, 1974, Turkish troops stormed into the Republic of Cyprus in accordance with Article III of the Treaty of Guarantee of the first constitution of 1960. This mandated each of the guaranteeing parties - Greece, Turkey and Great Britain - "to take action with the sole aim of re-establishing the state of affairs" if that were ever threatened.

In their first meeting since February, Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci said they had a constructive exchange of views and would continue to work with a United Nations envoy.

President Nicos Anastasiades has replied to three questions posed by the United Nations regarding security and guarantees on Wednesday by addressing the Conference from a 16-page document at Crans-Montana, Switzerland on Thursday morning.

The time for concentrated peace talks in Cyprus, where the parties to the solution should be locked up in a room and not allowed out until they reach an agreement, was needed, according to the president of Turkish Cyprus. 

Amid the burning problems of Iraq, Syria, Gaza, Ukraine, and others, surrounding Turkey, not many people noticed that this year marked the 40th anniversary of the Cyprus Peace Operation of July 20, 1974. Once described as the “national issue” in Turkey, it no longer occupies the center stage in public discussions.