The UN Secretary-General’s special advisor for Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, is thought to be planning a visit the island early next month in an attempt to encourage a resumption of the stalled proximity talks, the Cyprus News Agency reported yesterday.
However, De Soto, who has conducted five rounds of proximity talks since December 1999, may have a hard sell, with Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash showing little sign of backing down on the demands he made in bringing the proximity talks to an abrupt end last year.
Government Spokesman Michalis Papapetrou yesterday reiterated the Republic’s unwillingness to bow to any of Denktash’s demands. “The government is ready to continue the effort of the UN-sponsored proximity talks without any conditions from the point these were interrupted,” he said, adding: “We believe that Denktash had no excuse at all to abandon the dialogue and there is absolutely no reason why he should be offered anything to return to the table.”
Denktash, however, told To Vima in Athens said that if the Greek Cypriot side became economically or politically linked with the European Union, the Turkish Cypriot side would have no alternative but to do the same with Turkey. “Then, 10-15 years later, it will be our time to join the European Union and it will only be then that talks on the subject of reunification of Cyprus may begin,” he asserted.
He maintained that, “the Turkish Cypriot side is ready to discuss any solution in any negotiation process except proximity talks.”
Meanwhile, US state department co-ordinator Tom Weston, in a statement to Greek newspaper Kathimerini, stressed that for a definite solution in Cyprus, the two sides had to return to the process of negotiations.
Papapetrou yesterday welcomed this clarification and told journalists: “Weston has made it clear that the United States would like to see a settlement and a reunited Cyrus join the European Union, but if this is not possible, Cyprus will accede without a solution in accordance with the EU decision in Helsinki.”
Last December, Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, backed by Ankara, declared the proximity talks a “waste of time”, demanding international recognition for the breakaway regime in the north before returning to the negotiating table.
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.
