Day two and still talking

THE GENEVA talks entered their second day yesterday, with separate meetings between UN envoy Alvaro de Soto and the leaders of the two communities.

Speaking before his meeting with De Soto, Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash said he was in Geneva to talk but accused the Greek Cypriot side of wanting the whole of the island. “Naturally, we talk, this is why we are here,” he said.

“We are talking, that is a good sign, isn’t it, to keep on talking.” In response to questions in Turkish, Denktash said he did not know whether De Soto had invited map specialists to Geneva, but added: “Greek Cypriots want the whole of Cyprus.”

After the meeting with De Soto, the Turkish Cypriot leader said the talks had been useful. President Glafcos Clerides described his meeting with De Soto as “interesting”, but made it clear the UN had put no new ideas forward.

“We had a quite interesting and in-depth discussion of various aspects of the Cyprus problem, in the context of the four chapters set out by the UN Secretary-General,” Clerides said. US Presidential Emissary for Cyprus Alfred Moses, who is in Geneva on the sidelines of the talks along with other foreign envoys, said yesterday the progress being made at the talks was not as great as expected.

But he said he was always optimistic. Moses, together with US State Department Special Co-ordinator for Cyprus Thomas Weston and US Ambassador to Nicosia Donald Bandler, met Clerides earlier yesterday.

The meeting, at Clerides’ hotel, lasted 45 minutes. The US officials said they would also meet Denktash. Moses citied the UN-imposed blackout on the talks, but expressed his optimism. “So far we have not made as much progress as we had hoped, but we are continuing.”

Moses also refrained from commenting on statements by Denktash yesterday, criticising De Soto for his views on the EU’s contribution to efforts for a Cyprus settlement. “I do not respond to day-to-day comments by one side or the other,” he said. “You can interpret these as you wish but I do not attach great importance to them.”

The fifth round of talks opened in Geneva on Wednesday and will continue until November 10.

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.