PRESIDENT Glafcos Clerides said yesterday that Turkish Cypriot participation in the next round of UN peace talks was not a matter of concern to him.
He said the Cyprus government was working quietly to achieve its goals and stressed that it has already been decided that the Cyprus solution would take UN resolutions fully into consideration.
Clerides was responding to statements made by Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash that he would not attend the January proximity talks in Geneva unless his breakaway regime in the north was recognised.
Denktash said last week the year-long UN sponsored talks had been a waste of time.
Clerides declined to comment on Denktash’s remarks but when pressed further on whether he believed Denktash would go to Geneva, Clerides said:
“It is no concern of mine if Mr Denktash goes to the talks or not, he is the one who is dealing with the matter.”
“Our side is doing exactly what it has to do, without any fanfare,” he added.
“It is high time everybody understands that foreign policy is not carried out for local consumption but for a successful outcome and has to be well organised and carried out quietly.”
Clerides said he wished to make it clear that decisions already taken stated that the solution to the Cyprus problem had to take UN resolutions fully into consideration.
“It appears that Mr Denktash does not wish to take into full consideration the resolutions,” Clerides said.
Turkish Cypriot papers yesterday quoted Denktash as saying that in order to get back to the negotiating table, the Turkish Cypriot side would need to discuss “principles” and that there was no point going to negotiations “blindfolded”.
Denktash said decisions taken in Ankara last week included talks on a `state to state’ basis, talking confederation as opposed to federation, protecting the Greco-Turkish balance and introducing a property exchange mechanism and compensation.
He said signing an agreement that recognised the right of Greek Cypriots to return to their homes would amount to making half of the Turkish Cypriot population homeless. He said they had come face to face with an approach that only took the Greek Cypriot position into consideration.
`We have to discuss with those concerned the principles which we are ready to accept in order to return to the negotiating table,” Denktash said. “There is no point sitting at the negotiating table with our eyes closed,” Denktash said.
UN special envoy for Cyprus Alvaro de Soto is expected to arrive on the island on Sunday for a two-day visit, which will involve contacts with both sides.
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.
