TURKISH Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash will not be attending UN-sponsored talks in New York next week aimed at solving the Cyprus Problem, he informed the United Nations last night.
“We did receive confirmation from Mr Denktash that he cannot attend the meeting here,” UN spokesman Manoel Almeida e Silva told reporters in New York yesterday.
Formal word that Denktash had turned down the UN invitation for talks beginning on Wednesday was a blow to the UN.
“We regret this development. We hope this is not Mr Denktash’s final word. There is a lot of work that needs to be done and efforts must get back on truck without delay and in earnest,” Silva said.
President Glafcos Clerides had already accepted the invitation and will be in New York next week, the UN spokesman said.
Earlier yeasterday, Clerides forecast that Denktash would not respond positively to UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan’s invitation for the resumption of talks on September 12.
Clerides said he himself would be in New York next week but that he would not now be meeting Annan.
Meanwhile, the Greek government yesterday vowed to complain about Denktash’s refusal to attend the talks to the informal conference of EU foreign ministers taking place today and tomorrow.
Annan had invited the two leaders to separate meetings in the hope that talks could be resumed immediately but Denktash on Wednesday spurned the offer less than an hour after it was made by Annan’s special Cyprus envoy Alvaro de Soto in Nicosia. Denktash said he wanted further talks on his status before he would agree to any negotiations.
“If the Secretary-general asks to see me, I will not refuse,” Clerides said earlier yesterday. He said he was also planning to see representatives of the UN Security Council permanent members.
The British Foreign Office expressed its deep disappointment over Denktash’s refusal to go to New York.
“We are deeply disappointed about his refusal to return to the UN settlement process”, a British official from the British Foreign Office told London Greek Radio yesterday. “We don’t find his reasons for not doing so to be justified or convincing.”
Turkish Cypriot press said yesterday that Ankara was fully behind Denktash’s decision. Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Faruk Logoglu told reporters in Ankara that extending an invitation for September 12 without seeking the Turkish Cypriot side’s confirmation did not harmonise with the good offices mission of the UN Secretary-general.
He said the Turkish Cypriot side was objecting to the date of the invitation as well as to the point that it was made without sufficient provision for the preparation of ground. The Turkish Cypriot side was of the opinion that starting a process without sufficient preparation of ground would render the process unsuccessful.
Denktash was yesterday quoted as saying de Soto had wasted his time. “An official who is conducting a mission of good offices does not have the right to publicly declare a date for a meeting when he knows that one side will come to the meeting while the other will not be able to,” he said. “If de Soto does not use the term partnership then I do not go to the meeting.”
Asked to comment on Turkish threats to annex the north if Cyprus’ EU entry goes ahead, Clerides said yesterday that Turkey was already given its answer by the EU. “If Turkey implements its threats it can forget its accession to the EU,” Clerides said referring to a European Parliament’s resolution.
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.
