NICOSIA: Turkey’s army chief on Saturday backed planned peace negotiations to reunify Cyprus, but warned that a withdrawal of Turkish soldiers from the island after any deal would not be swift.

Saying the Turkish military presence was the “guarantee” for peace in Cyprus, General Yasar Buyukanit also said his soldiers would continue to patrol in the vicinity of a new crossing in the heart of capital Nicosia set to be opened next week.“It is always beneficial to talk. Problems are always solved by talking,” Buyukanit said in divided Nicosia when asked about last week’s agreement between President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat to launch fresh peace talks.

Buyukanit, speaking at the end of a a four-day trip to the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Cyprus, urged the leaders to lay out in detail their vision for peace, underlining that he hoped to see a deal based on the sovereignty and equal rights of the TRNC.

“Everybody is talking about a just and lasting peace, but do we all mean the same thing?” he asked. “The authorities need to clearly detail the parameters of a just and lasting peace and explain their views to the public.” Asked whether Turkish troops would withdraw if there is a peace deal, Buyukanit said a pullout would take place only after the army believes such an accord to be sound.

“There is no such thing as pulling troops out tomorrow if there is a peace deal today,” he said. “The army needs to observe and be fully convinced on how safe Turkish Cypriots are. Only then can this issue be considered.” Turkey, the only country to recognise the TRNC, has stationed about 40,000 troops in northern Cyprus since 1974 when it stormed the island in response to an Athens-engineered Greek Cypriot coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece.

It justifies the deployment under 1960 agreements which gave the island independence from Britain and designated Turkey and Greece as guarantors, along with the former colonial power.

Buyukanit also downplayed the significance of a new crossing point at Ledra Street, a major shopping artery in Nicosia, that the Turkish and Cypriot leaders agreed last week to re-open in a gesture of goodwill.

The crossing “is not a very great step towards just and lasting peace. It will only be one of many crossing points on the island,” Buyukanit said.

He underlined that the re-opening of the pedestrian street, blocked off for decades, would not mean a withdrawal of Turkish soldiers stationed inside a military zone near the crossing.

“We will, under no condition, budge even a metre from the area we are responsible for,” the general said.

Last year, the Greek Cypriots tore down their side of the concrete barrier on the pedestrian street inside the old city’s 600-year-old Venetian walls while Turkish Cypriot authorities demolished their side in 2005.

But plans to re-open the street — the sixth crossing between the two communities — were dogged at the time by Greek Cypriot demands that Turkish soldiers withdraw from the vicinity as a precondition, a demand rebuffed by Turkey and Turkish Cypriots.

Earlier this week, a UN team swept the area for explosives and Greek and Turkish Cypriot crews moved in to remove debris to make room for a paved walk-way. Officials are hoping that the crossing will be opened by the end of next week.—AFP