Denktash leaves hospital

By a Staff Reporter

TURKISH Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, whose heart ailment forced a delay in UN-backed peace talks aimed at reuniting Cyprus, was discharged from a New York hospital yesterday, a spokeswoman said.

“He was discharged at 10.15am today,” said Kathy Thompson, spokeswoman for New York’s Columbia Presbyterian Medical Centre, where Denktash, 78, underwent surgery on October 7 and a follow-up operation last Sunday to replace a heart valve. She did not give further details.

Denktash and President Glafcos Clerides had been due to return to the table in mid-October in a last bid to reunite the island before the European Union announces an entry date for Cyprus at a December summit.

A spokesman for Denktash said last week that he would be unable to join the talks for eight more weeks.

Denktash’s spokesman was not immediately available to comment yesterday and it was not certain if Denktash would be able to take part in a meeting with Clerides and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York planned for November.

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.