Turkish Cyprus rejects Greek Cypriots' EU police force proposal

The Turkish Cypriot administration has opposed a proposal by the Greek Cypriots for the deployment of some 2,500 police officers from the European Union to operate in the divided eastern Mediterranean island instead of a guarantorship system, as part of the recently-accelerated peace negotiations. 

Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Akıncı, who is the main Turkish Cypriot negotiator in the relaunched talks for a peaceful solution to the more than 40-year-old conflict together with Greek Cypriot counterpart Nicos Anastasiades, rejected the proposal coming from the Greek Cypriot side to make use of 2,500 EU police officers on the island, instead of the current guarantorship system.

The almost half-century-old Cyprus problem erupted after the island was granted independence from Britain in 1960, soon followed by an outbreak of inter-communal clashes in 1963. The island was ethnically divided between a Greek south and a Turkish north when the Turkish military intervened in 1974 under the terms of the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee after diplomacy failed to end unrest on the island and a coup aimed at unification with Greece. 

Britain, together with Turkey and Greece, is one of the guarantor states of Cyprus under a 1960 treaty.
Long-stalled negotiations to find a way to settle the conflict resumed last year following Akıncı's election in April. The talks restarted last May are focused on establishing a federal model.

According to the proposal reported by Greek Cypriot media, the guarantorship system was proposed to be lifted totally and EU police forces, which will not consist of either Turkish, Greek or British police officers, will be deployed on the island for a period of five years and their tenure can be extended on the request of...