TURKISH Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash said yesterday a recent European Union-backed deal for a new union between Montenegro and Serbia offered a model for Cyprus.
Earlier this month, Montenegrin and Serbian leaders agreed to revamp the state into a loose union and name it Serbia and Montenegro. Either side can opt out after three years.
“The Montenegro model, this is an example that is close to our desires — recognising each other and creating a unity,” Denktash told reporters after meeting President Glafcos Clerides yesterday.
Clerides and Denktash conclude their second round of talks today.
They met for less than an hour yesterday in the presence of UN Secretary-general’s special adviser for Cyprus Alvaro de Soto.
De Soto leaves the island after today’s concluding meeting and travels for consultations in Athens and Ankara before flying on to New York to brief UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan and the Security Council in early April.
Talks are expected to resume in the second week of April, once De Soto returns.
The open-ended talks began in mid-January. Mediators hope results can be achieved by June, ahead of the completion of Cyprus’ EU accession negotiations and before Denktash undergoes heart surgery.
Recent weeks have seen gloom descend over the process, with little sign of the Turkish side budging from its oft-stated ‘two states’ position. Denktash’s latest remarks will have done little to dispel the pessimism, as the Serbia-Montenegro deal provides for two totally separate states in all but name.
American President George W. Bush nevertheless welcomed the continuation of the talks process on Monday, expressing the hope they would lead to a solution.
Speaking at a ceremony to mark Greek Independence Day, Bush said: “We welcome the resumption of diplomatic talks on Cyprus and hope that they will lead to a final settlement that strengthens regional peace and stability.”
A DELEGATION from the British House of Commons yesterday called on the Greek and Turkish Cypriot sides to grasp the opportunity afforded to them by the ongoing peace talks.
“This is a moment of opportunity after such a long wait within the island. We hope that it will be grasped positively by both sides,” said Labour MP Donald Anderson, chairman of the foreign affairs select committee.
Anderson was speaking after his delegation from the Commons committee met in Nicosia with Tassos Papadopoulos, chairman of the House European Affairs Committee.
Papadopoulos said he had received assurances that the House of Commons would approve Cyprus’ EU membership, when national parliaments are called to ratify the treaty of accession for new members next year.
The delegation was later received by President Clerides.
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.
