Упрощенная HTML-версия
Author : S. Osadchy
Russian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Cyprus
DURING MY PROFESSIONAL CAREER, I have
witnessed several historical events in Cyprus. The July
days of 1974, tragic for the people of Cyprus, are still
fresh in my mind. Working at the Soviet embassy in
Cyprus at the time, I observed the coup and the sub-
sequent military operation by the Turkish army, which
led to the forcible division of the island state into the
Greek and Turkish sectors.
We Soviet diplomats did not remain indifferent to the
processes that were unfolding on the island, demon-
strating our commitment to the search for a just, stable and lasting peace settlement on Cyprus
based on the choice made by the Cypriot communities themselves. Unlike other states, our coun-
try adopted a firm and consistent position in favor of the island's independence, and this position
has not undergone any situational changes to date.
Going back to the origin of all of Cyprus's problems, it needs to be said that when it gained in-
dependence in 1960, the Republic of Cyprus was confronted with a number of difficulties in
terms of interethnic communication.
We would like to hope that a day will come when Europe's last divided capital finally loses its
exclusive status on the world's political map.
After the Makarios government was overthrown on July 15, 1974, the Soviet government im-
mediately condemned the organizers of the coup.
Russia still has a clear-cut position on the abolition of the guarantee system. As is known, this
system was imposed on Cyprus under the Zurich-London agreements of 1959. Optimal guar-
antees for united Cyprus are UN Security Council guarantees. In other words, the security of
Cyprus should be guaranteed by a collective body - the UN Security Council, not by two or three
states in accordance with their own interests. In this context, Russia, as a permanent member of
the UN Security Council, is ready to become involved in resolving the Cyprus problem.
The failure of efforts to reach a settlement in Cyprus will imminently lead to the growing sense
of frustration among the island people. The danger, however, is that the preservation of the sta-
tus quo, as well as the failure to resolve the Cyprus issue for such a long time, casts a shadow on
the effectiveness of the existing tools of resolving international conflicts within the framework
of the present system of international law. The unresolved Cyprus dispute is not conducive to
strengthening stability in the eastern Mediterranean.
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Russia and the Cyprus Issue