Turkey's role proves an obstacle in Cyprus reunification talks

An insistence by breakaway Turkish Cypriots to cede Turkey the right to militarily intervene under a hoped-for deal reunifying ethnically divided Cyprus is "excessive and unjustified", the Mediterranean island's president said on Friday.

President Nicos Anastasiades said in a televised address marking Cyprus's 56th anniversary of independence from British colonial rule that no modern state within the European Union has any need for third-country security guarantees.