By Maria Spiliopoulou
ATHENS, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Greek Foreign Ministry spokesperson Stratos Efthymiou responded on Monday to Turkey's criticism on Athens' stance on the Cyprus issue, following the latest inconclusive round of UN-mediated reunification talks in Switzerland.
In a written statement to Xinhua on Monday, Efthymiou clarified that Greece was not the one to begin exercising criticism against Turkey, but "it was actually the other way around".
"It was the Turkish Foreign Ministry that decided to launch an attack against the Greek Foreign Minister by releasing a statement on the morning of Saturday, July 8. Following that, Greece could not but restore the facts," Efthymiou said in the statement.
Greece and Turkey have been involved in a blame game, after a series of UN-backed Cyprus reunification talks failed.
On Friday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres announced that the UN-mediated diplomatic efforts of the past two weeks in the Swiss resort town of Crans-Montana for the island's reunification ended inconclusively.
In a written statement issued on Saturday morning, Turkish Foreign Ministry's spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu said that the uncompromising and non-constructive attitude that underlied Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias' remarks "was displayed throughout the entire Conference by the Greek Cypriot and Greek sides".
In response, Greece's Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Saturday evening under the title "Hard truths".
"Greece attended the Conference in Crans-Montana determined to contribute in every possible way to resolving the Cyprus problem, and in the hope that everyone would act in such a direction," according to the "Hard truths" statement.
"But, Turkey's conduct dashed any hopes anyone had that there would be a change in its stance. Just as Turkey abandoned the first Conference, it torpedoed the second," the statement said.
"We reiterate that Greece will continue to work relentlessly, with all means at its disposal, for a just and viable solution to the Cyprus problem, in close cooperation with the Republic of Cyprus, the UN and the European Union. And it calls on all of the parties to the Conference to show responsibility, respect for international law, and self-restraint," the Greek Foreign Ministry's statement concluded.
In his statement to Xinhua on Monday, Greek Foreign Ministry spokesperson Efthymiou also stressed that "Greece did not in fact blame Turkey for having intervention 'rights' over Cyprus".
"What the Greek Foreign Minister actually stated was that Turkey deliberately misled the UN Secretary-General Mr. Guterres into believing that it was ready to compromise and forgo of these intervention 'rights' in order to reach a settlement of the Cyprus problem," Efthymiou said.
"This became evident when at the final hours of the conference, the Turkish delegation was asked to express its position clearly: instead of confirming what he had earlier suggested, the Turkish Foreign Minister Mr. Cavusoglu firmly refused to abolish Turkey's intervention 'rights' over Cyprus," he explained.
"Turkey's fixation in maintaining its geopolitical interests in Cyprus, in spite of being in violation of international law and UN resolutions for over 40 years is indicative of Turkey's true intentions," Efthymiou added.
The Greek Foreign Ministry spokesperson made the statement "in order to avoid any sort of misinterpretations of Greece's principled and clear positions, as they were expressed during the recent Conference on Cyprus, which took place in Crans Montana".
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 and the Republic of Cyprus joined the EU as a divided country in 2004. Leaders of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots have been talking with each other for two years on how to reunite Cyprus.
Turkey occupied part of the territory of Cyprus in 1974 in reaction to a coup by the military rulers of Greece at the time, leading to one of the most intractable international problems and one of the longest issues on the UN agenda.
