The UN's latest reunification plan for Cyprus appears to address Turkey's main political and security concerns for the island's future, a Turkish diplomat said on Monday.The source said an unidentified number of Turkish troops would stay permanently on the long-divided eastern Mediterranean island to boost security for Turkish Cypriots.
"It seems that our demands on security and political equality have been addressed," the diplomat told reporters on condition of anonymity, shortly after UN chief Kofi Annan presented the latest proposal to end the island's 30-year partition at a reunification summit in Switzerland.
"No one side would be able to rule or dominate the other," the diplomat added.
Turkey is currently said to have 30,000 troops on the island while the homegrown Turkish Cypriot forces are estimated at 4,500 troops.
Under the previous UN plan, Turkey and Greece would each keep 6,000 troops stationed there until Ankara joined the EU. Turkey is still waiting for a date to start accession talks.
Monday's proposal is the fourth version of a UN blueprint to reunify the ethnic Greek and Turkish parts of the island before it joins the European Union on May 1.
Turkish Cypriots have voiced fears that the more populous and richer Greek Cypriots could one day swamp the Turkish Cypriot minority in their northern enclave.
If the talks in Switzerland fail to bear fruit, Annan will finalize a settlement text to be put to referendums on both sides of Cyprus on April 20.
Cyprus was divided in 1974, when Turkish troops invaded the island's north in response to an Athens-engineered Greek Cypriot coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece.
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