By Jean Christou
UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan is looking at ways to keep Cyprus talks on track as the deadline for the December EU summit in Copenhagen draws nearer, reports from New York said yesterday.
“Time is pressing and a stock taking is required at this time so the Secretary-general can take a decision on how he can assist in moving the process forward,” chief UN spokesman Fred Eckhard told journalists.
Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash and President Glafcos Clerides had been expected to resume their talks in early November, in search of an agreement by mid-December in time for the EU summit in Copenhagen, when Cyprus is expected to be approved for entry in 2004.
However, the talks have been put on hold until Denktash, who this month underwent a heart operation and a second round of surgery following complications in New York, is fully recovered, His aides say this will take at least eight weeks – taking him beyond the Copenhagen deadline. Reports last week suggested Annan might try to arrange a meeting with Denktash before he leaves New York, which is expected to be some time next week.
Eckhard said that UN special envoy Alvaro de Soto consulted with Greek officials in Athens last week on how to move forward and would meet Clerides and Turkish officials over the next few days before returning to New York at the end of the week to brief Annan.
While Annan had been widely expected to soon put forward a draft peace plan of his own, De Soto has said repeatedly in recent days that “there is no UN plan,” Eckhard said.
However, EU Enlargement Commissioner Guenther Verheugen and foreign policy chief Javier Solana both last week said such a plan did exist.
Reports from Brussels yesterday said hopes a settlement before the December 12 Copenhagen summit remained strong despite the setbacks resulting from Denktash’s illness.
“Things are more mature than they have ever been for a settlement,” a diplomatic source told Reuters.
Asked about Denktash’s illness, the source said Annan might choose to invite Clerides to New York to discuss the plan. “But the catalyst must come before Copenhagen,” added the source, who is close to the UN brokered talks. “It is not too late, if the political will is there, to get a framework agreement at or before Copenhagen.”
The report said that Turkey’s general election on Sunday would prove key to determining whether that political will really existed, but the EU could help by keeping open the door for Ankara’s eventual accession to the Union, the source said.
Brussels has promised generous aid to the Turkish Cypriots if they cut a deal with the Greek Cypriot side, but it also says it is ready to admit the island without a settlement.
The diplomatic source said he expected the Greek Cypriots to offer the Turkish Cypriots “messages of good will” at the Copenhagen summit to help ease their living conditions, but he declined to say what these might entail.
Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis said yesterday in London, after meeting his British counterpart Tony Blair, that
everything regarding Cyprus’ accession would progress without problems.
However, he warned there was now a situation where the Greek Cypriot side wanted to forge ahead with accession and others might think there was an opportunity to “introduce some issues” which, under other circumstances, the Greek Cypriot side and Greece would not accept.
Simitis said it was his experience that when one country secured a gain, it was often possible for others to think, “since you have gained something, give something else in return”.
“I would like to avert such associations” in the case of Cyprus, he said..
Clerides said yesterday a Monday summit in Copenhagen had informed candidate countries on the various decisions taken by the European Union at last week’s Brussels Summit.
“None of these decisions affect Cyprus and its European path,” Clerides said.
Commenting on his brief encounter in Copenhagen with Turkish President Ahmed Sezer, Clerides said they exchanged views mainly on the delay in the talks due to Denktash’s illness. He said Sezer had asked him whether the technical committees, set up within the framework of the direct talks, had begun their work.
“I told him we are ready. We have given the names of the members of the two committees. We have not received information from the Turkish side whether they have given the names. I knew before we left that they had not given any names yet due to Mr. Denktash’s illness.
“Mr. Sezer was very friendly,” Clerides added.
