Turkish Cypriot leader calls air link-for-land offer 'stunt'

The leader of the breakaway Turkish Cypriot side of ethnically split Cyprus has rejected overtures by Greek Cypriots to reignite peace efforts by offering international air and sea links in exchange for territory

NICOSIA, Cyprus -- The leader of the breakaway Turkish Cypriot side of ethnically split Cyprus on Thursday rejected overtures by Greek Cypriots to reignite peace efforts by offering international air and sea links in exchange for territory.

Ersin Tatar called the offer a “propaganda stunt” aimed at keeping his people under their rivals’ thumb. Accepting it would amount to the Turkish Cypriots indirectly acknowledging the “sole authority (and) sovereignty of the Greek Cypriot polity over the island,” he said.

The foreign minister of Cyprus recently proposed the return of an abandoned suburb to its former Greek Cypriot inhabitants in exchange for allowing an unrecognized airport in the north to operate international flights under United Nations control and a sea port to run under European Union management.

Varosha, a suburb of around 6.2 square kilometers (2.4 square miles) located on the Mediterranean nation’s once-prosperous eastern coastline, had until recently remained under Turkish military control. Its inhabitants fled during a 1974 Turkish invasion triggered by a coup aimed at a Cypriot union with Greece.