FOREIGN Minister Ioannis Cassoulides said yesterday that a solution to the Cyprus problem could be reached by June if the Turkish side showed honesty at the January talks.
Cassoulides argued that Turkey’s plans for international acknowledgement of the Turkish Cypriot regime had been ruined. “Cyprus made some good efforts in 2001,” said Cassoulides. “The European Court’s verdict against Turkey blocked its ambitions regarding the status of the breakaway regime and the Turkish lobby has failed to affect the Islamic world’s opinion on the matter.”
He also felt that Cyprus’ negotiations with the EU had acted as a catalyst for the resumption of talks. “I don’t know if the EU factor will affect the January talks positively, but if it does not the dividing line will not endure considering the dynamic created by Cyprus’ accession,” he said.
The foreign minister’s statements were made on the eve of the dinner tonight between President Glafcos Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash at Clerides’ residence in Nicosia.
This will be the first time since the 1974 invasion that Denktash will have crossed into the southern part of the island. President Clerides made the first move on December 5 when he crossed to the north to dine with Denktash at his residence.
Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit yesterday appeared optimistic that the meeting would prepare the ground for substantial negotiations which would lead to the solution of the Cyprus problem.
Around 200 members of the media from Cyprus and abroad are expected to cover the dinner tonight.
Meanwhile, some groups plan to protest against the dinner. The Initiative Group, made up of several refugee associations, said yesterday it would stage a demonstration charging that the dinner in question “downgrades the status of the Cyprus Republic and amounts to acknowledgement of the Denktash regime”.
The Committee for the Relatives of Missing Persons said it was planning a peaceful protest and New Horizons’ youth branch Nei Argonavtes yesterday condemned Clerides’ action to invite Denktash over for dinner. The group plans to distribute information material today “to raise awareness about the situation”.
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.
