“The Republic of Cyprus is a sovereign state and Greece would support any request it makes” was the response from Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lana Zochou, when asked about discussions that have begun regarding the possibility of Cyprus submitting a request to join the NATO alliance.
As parapolitika.gr reported today, the issue was raised by the President of the Republic of Cyprus, provoking a reaction from Turkish Cypriot “Foreign Minister” Tahsin Ertugruloglu, who characterized the idea as unrealistic. Speaking to the Anadolu news agency, the Turkish Cypriot official claimed that Ankara is closely monitoring developments and attributed the issue to a broader political effort by the Greek Cypriot side to shift regional balances in their favor, ignoring the realities on the island and in the Eastern Mediterranean, concluding that both Turkey and the pseudo-state “will not allow such a move to be implemented.”
Moreover, the Turkish Cypriot “Foreign Minister,” commenting on the possibility of European defense forces having a permanent presence on the island, rejected such a scenario, which he attributed to the political game being played by the Greek Cypriot side in order to revive the discussion about Cyprus joining NATO, even issuing threats, noting that “no country supporting the Greek Cypriot Republic would be able to go to war with Turkey.”
What Haris Tzimitras says about Cyprus joining NATO
Professor of International Law and director of the Cyprus Centre of the Oslo Peace Research Institute, Haris Tzimitras, speaking to parapolitika.gr, believes that the timing does not favor discussion of such a complex issue as Cyprus joining NATO. However, he finds it “interesting” that Mr. Christodoulides raised it at this juncture, while noting that there are political forces in the Republic of Cyprus, such as AKEL and the Center-Left, that for ideological reasons do not accept joining the NATO alliance. Regarding Turkey’s stance, Mr. Tzimitras points out that what worries him is what would happen if Turkey said “yes,” because, as he explains, “I bring up the example of Finland and Sweden’s admission, which took 20 months of negotiations due to Turkish demands. Turkey ultimately withdrew a huge list of claims it had made. So you can understand that if this applied to Finland and Sweden, what could happen with the Republic of Cyprus. And there’s the usual big question of whether Russia would ever allow it, since it considers it an existential threat.”
