Turkey's foreign minister wants no conditions for Cyprus peace summit

Nicosia: Turkey’s foreign minister says his country and the Turkish Cypriots are ready to take part in a summit in Geneva to work out a peace accord reunifying ethnically divided Cyprus. [caption id=“attachment_2623580” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. AFP[/caption] But Mevlut Cavusoglu on Thursday urged the island’s Greek Cypriot president Nicos Anastasiades to drop unacceptable “conditions” on what the summit’s priorities should be. Anastasiades insists on first dealing with the issue of the withdrawal of Turkish troops. More than 35,000 troops remain in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north after Turkey’s 1974 invasion that followed a coup by supporters of union with Greece. The Turkish top diplomat also repeated a call for Anastasiades to cease a “unilateral” Greek Cypriot offshore oil and gas search that he said ignores the rights of Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots.