By Jean Christou
WHAT HAD been touted as a decisive meeting between US President Bill Clinton and Turkish Prime Minster Bulent Ecevit has left the future of renewed talks on the Cyprus problem in limbo.It was widely believed that, based on the outcome of the meeting in Washington on Tuesday, UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan would decide whether to invite the two sides back to the negotiating table for talks late next month.The Greek Cypriot side had hoped Clinton would pressure Ecevit to push forward with the talks.But no plan for Cyprus was proposed by Clinton in his meeting with the Turkish Prime Minister.Instead, the US President announced that he would send his special envoy Alfred Moses to the region as early as next week to assess the situation.It appears likely now that Annan will also hold off his decision until Moses completes his contacts.Before the Cyprus delegation left New York yesterday, government spokesman Michalis Papapetrou, said in a terse statement that the Greek Cypriot side remained firm on its position that talks must be held without conditions, as envisaged in the relevant UN resolutions.”The Greek Cypriot side is not prepared to get involved in a dialogue for finding a formula which will partly or wholly meet the demands or conditions set by Mr Denktash for participating in talks,” Papapetrou said.”We have made note of the assurances that have been given, but we cannot remain satisfied with assurances alone. What we are seeking is results and in this sense everything will be judged by the end result. We believe the United States and other countries as well, but primarily the United States, have the power and means to contribute decisively towards bending Turkish intransigence.”In Nicosia, disappointment among the political establishment was more palpable and the reaction more vocal.”We feel disappointed and displeased that nothing positive came out of the meeting,” said Disy leader Nicos Anastassiades.President Clinton avoided exerting any pressure on Turkey,” said House President and Acting President of the Republic Spyros Kyprianou.In a statement, Communist party Akel said it appeared that America’s priority was to help Turkey enter the European Union.It was widely reported in the Turkish Cypriot press that Ecevit told Clinton Turkey must be recognised as an EU candidate if progress was to be made on Cyprus, and that Ankara would take no action on Cyprus until the outcome of the EU Helsinki summit in December.Following the Clinton-Ecevit meeting, senior US officials said the two leaders had agreed there could not be a solution to the Cyprus problem which would return the situation to what it was before 1974.They said Ecevit had supported Clinton’s suggestion to send Moses to the region “to explore ways for moving forward toward a negotiated settlement”.”We (the US) believe that we should move forward to talks under UN auspices with no preconditions and that is the point that the President made to the Prime Minister in the discussions,” one senior official said.”The president thought it would be useful to move the process forward to send a special envoy and the Prime Minster agreed with that.”The official said Ecevit had expressed the Turkish side’s well know views that talks could only take place if the breakaway regime in the north was recognised.”The reality must be accepted that there are two separate independent states on Cyprus,” Ecevit told diplomats in Washington.
