A revelation from the diplomatic background regarding the return of Famagusta was made by the president of the Citizens' Alliance, George Lillikas.
Mr. Lillikas, speaking at an event of the Citizens' Alliance, entitled: "Cyprus-Alternative Options or Deadlocks?", Referred to an unknown aspect of the Cyprus issue in 2006 when he was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the government of Tassos Papadopoulos.
"In 2006, when we announced that we would freeze Turkey's eight chapters, we prepared a package, in fact, give and take. "We should not freeze the eight chapters, we should open the port of Famagusta with a decision of the Council of Ministers under the auspices of the EU", he said.
He added: "I must tell you that the Finnish Presidency refused after three months of negotiations and Turkey refused to sit down for a direct dialogue with us then."
However, Mr. Lillikas continued, in a secret initiative, at the end of November 2006, the Spanish government (he had the presidency of the EU) was assigned by Tassos Papadopoulos to negotiate on our behalf. From the Turkish Cypriot side was Mr. Talat. In early December, he said, we reached an agreement.
"The texts were also prepared and we had also prepared the Security Council resolution with the consent of the five permanent members on how the city of Famagusta would be transferred to us and how the port would be opened, etc.," he noted.
"On December 4, Moratinos (Spanish Foreign Minister who held the EU presidency) goes and conveys this agreement to Erdogan, who had accepted in advance that whatever the Cypriots agree on, he will accept it. "And Erdogan tore the agreement before the eyes of Moratinos, saying that this agreement does not exist", stressed Mr. Lillikas.
"So it is not easy to convince Turkey to return territories, even before the solution of the Cyprus problem," he concluded.
Source: SigmaLive
