By Jean Christou
PRESIDENT Glafcos Clerides has made it clear there can be no solution to the Cyprus problem outside of UN resolutions and the good offices of UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan.
Speaking at a news conference following his address to the UN General Assembly in New York on Sunday, Clerides said the offer made last week by Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash to meet face to face was aimed at bypassing the UN.
The Cyprus News Agency (CNA) reported from New York that the Greek Cypriot side was willing to back the creation of ” a new partnership of two communities’ but did not agree with a partnership of two sovereign states, as demanded by the Turkish Cypriots.
Clerides added he would be glad to meet Denktash face to face, ” once we both accept to return to the negotiating table”.
“Mr Denktash wanted to bypass the good offices of the UN Secretary-general and go to direct talks when it was he who insisted on proximity talks,” Clerides said, adding that he did not want to give Denktash the opportunity to throw aside the UN. ” Because without the good offices (of the UN) it will not be possible to find a solution,”he said.
Clerides said that Annan had told him he could not give him a timetable within which he hoped to bring Denktash back to the negotiating process.
Asked if he realistically expected to see a Cyprus solution within his lifetime, the 82-year-old president said he had no intention of “leaving this planet tomorrow” and doubted Denktash was in a hurry either. “Let us utilise the time we have,” he said.
Earlier in the day during his address to the UN General Assembly, Clerides had called on Ankara to halt its threats to annex the north of the island if Cyprus joined the EU and urged Denktash to return to negotiations.
“The Turkish Cypriots will benefit considerably from the accession of our country to the European Union. I urge Mr Denktash to realise that he and I are not getting any younger and that we owe it to the younger generations of Cypriots to do away with the walls of division,” Clerides said.
“I recommend to the leadership of Turkey to abandon its threats for the annexation of the occupied part of Cyprus,” Clerides said, arguing that resolving the Cyprus problem would boost Turkey’s own aspirations for EU membership. Turkey’s envoys boycotted Clerides’ speech to the assembly’s annual general debate, as they have for the past eight years.
Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said earlier this month that annexation of the north was an option if the European Union admitted Cyprus before a settlement could be reached.
In a message to Denktash, Clerides invited the Turkish Cypriot leader to “join me in sharing the vision of a Cyprus too small to be divided”.
“Listen to the desperate voices of our Turkish Cypriot compatriots and stop placing obstacles at each turn to the good offices of the Secretary-general for a solution to the Cyprus problem,”he added.
“I urge Mr Denktash to realise that he and I are not getting any younger and
that we owe it to the younger generations of Cypriots to do away with the walls of division,” he said.
