Government plays down hope for solution

By Jean Christou

THE GOVERNMENT yesterday denied reports that President Clerides had said there would be a solution to the Cyprus problem in six months.

The denial came after extracts were published yesterday of comments Clerides allegedly made in an interview to Turkish Cypriot opposition newspaper Avrupa.

The matter was clarified by government spokesman Costas Serezis: “What President Clerides said was that if the Turkish Cypriots wanted a solution and came to the negotiating table with good intentions, then there could be a solution in six to seven months if negotiations began. But the government does not believe this good will exists on the part of the Turkish Cypriot side,” Serezis said.

UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan has called both sides back to face-to-face talks without preconditions following an initiative by the G8 countries.

The talks are expected to be called in New York in the Autumn.

The government has welcomed the invitation, but Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash says he will not negotiate unless his breakaway regime is recognised as a state.

Yesterday he repeated his stance.

He said he regretted the new UN initiative and stressed again his refusal to attend the talks unless he was recognised as head of state.

“Intercommunal talks have closed. We said we would talk state to state and we will,” he was quoted as saying by the Turkish Cypriot news agency Tak.

CyBC radio yesterday reported Denktash as saying that he would be ready to participate in four-way talks between the two sides plus Greece and Turkey.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.