By Jean Christou
A NEW meeting of Greek and Turkish Cypriot businessmen may take place next month in Athens, it was revealed yesterday.
Representatives from the Greek Cypriot delegation to the Brussels group met President Clerides yesterday to brief him on their contacts at the recent bi-communal businessmen’s meeting in Istanbul.
Constantinos Lordos told journalists after the meeting with Clerides that a new meeting may take place in Athens in February.
The Istanbul meeting, which was held in mid-December, was chaired by US special emissary Richard Holbrooke, and pledged to push forward already established contacts between businessmen on both sides.
However Phanos Epiphaniou, who also attended yesterday’s meeting with Clerides, told the Cyprus Mail that, since Istanbul, they had been unable to do anything concrete because of the negative stance of the Turkish Cypriot side, which has banned all bi-communal contacts.
In Istanbul, the Greek and Turkish Cypriot businessmen had agreed to try and work together to solve water shortages on the island, to launch projects to have their languages taught in each other’s schools, to establish an agreement to have cellular phones work on both sides, and to make efforts to restore historic monuments.
“We briefed the President on the meeting and gave him the statement we prepared there and where we stand now,” Epiphaniou said. “We are not proceeding at the moment due to the restrictions imposed.”
The Nicosia businessman said Clerides fully supported the bi-communal meetings, but had warned the businessmen not to expect too much progress before new efforts on the Cyprus problem bore fruit or before the elections in Turkey in April.
“He advised us that at the moment there is no prospect for progress,” Epiphaniou said. “There has been nothing at all since Istanbul, but we are determined to proceed, irrespective of the difficulties. We believe in these meetings.”
Epiphaniou said progress achieved at the meetings would eventually pay off when rapprochement got under way.
If the February meeting in Athens goes ahead, it will be the fourth meeting of what is known as the Brussels group since it first met in the Belgian capital in November 1997.
The meetings are organised with the help of the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo, Norway, with sponsorship from the American and Norwegian governments.
