A proposal for there to be direct dialogue between military elements on either side of Cyprus’ Green Line is currently at an impasse, as the two sides are yet to agree on the question of who will be the National Guard’s interlocutor, the Cyprus Mail understands.

Sources close to the matter have informed the newspaper that while the Turkish Cypriot side’s proposal is for the National Guard to be in direct dialogue with the Turkish Cypriot security forces, the Greek Cypriot side wishes for it to establish a direct line to Turkish military elements on the island.

Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman had said after last Monday’s tripartite meeting he held with President Nikos Christodoulides and United Nations envoy Maria Angela Holguin that he had put forward a proposal for the establishment of such a mechanism, but that Christodoulides had rejected it.

He had earlier included the matter in a ten-point plan for the implementation of confidence-building measures he had submitted to Christodoulides shortly after his election as Turkish Cypriot leader last year.

Following this, he had stressed the importance of the creation of such a mechanism in January, in the aftermath of a buffer zone incident involving Greek Cypriot farmers and Turkish Cypriot soldiers.

“The aim [would be] to ensure that contact could be established without delay in case of any problems,” he said at the time.

Christodoulides said he was prepared to discuss matter

Christodoulides had written in his section of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ July report on the status of the UN’s good offices in Cyprus that he would be prepared to discuss “the establishment of a mechanism for military contacts between the opposing forces in Cyprus”.

There are two separate, but allied, military elements operating north of the Green Line, with the Turkish Cypriot Security Forces, established in 1976, being manned by Turkish Cypriots and numbering around 15,000 active personnel and 26,000 reservists.

It is supplemented by the Cyprus Turkish Peace Force, the Turkish military garrison on the island, which is believed to entail a contingent of around 40,000 people.

However, the Turkish Cypriot Security Forces’ commanding officer is appointed directly by the Turkish army.

On the other side of the Green Line, the National Guard comprises around 12,000 active personnel and 60,000 reservists, while the Hellenic Force in Cyprus, Greece’s battalion on the island, currently numbers around 950 people.

The post of chief of the National Guard is appointed by the Republic of Cyprus’ cabinet, but is always filled by a Greek national, rather than by a Cypriot.

At present, contact between military elements on either side of the Green Line is conducted through the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus (Unficyp).