UNITED Nations special envoy Alvaro de Soto said yesterday that if the two sides on the island and Greece and Turkey agreed, then the UN plan for the settlement of the Cyprus problem could be amended.
“But we must see if an agreement is reached or not,” De Soto said in Ankara.
Speaking after meeting Turkey’s ruling party leader Tayyip Erdogan, De Soto said he had not presented any maps to him, but they had discussed the issue in detail.
The UN envoy refused to say whether he had observed any contradiction between the views of Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash and Erdogan.
He said Erdogan’s views were clear, adding that the question should be addressed to Erdogan himself.
On Tuesday, De Soto met with Prime Minister Abdullah Gul and Foreign Ministry undersecretary Ugur Ziyal.
After the meeting, he said an agreement on Cyprus was possible but the two sides must have the political will and work hard.
De Soto said the Turkish Prime Minister had stressed his country’s strong commitment to a solution, adding that during the meeting they had discussed the urgency of the solution.
“I had a very useful meeting with the Prime Minister and we talked about the plan presented by the Secretary-general to the Turkish and Greek Cypriots on the settlement of the old problem.
“We talked about the urgency of finding a settlement in the coming weeks.
“I am very happy to report that I received encouragement from the Prime Minister to come to a solution and that Turkey wants to reach a solution; I hope that in the coming weeks something will come out,” De Soto said.
But comments by Denktash on Tuesday gave little hope for an agreement.
The Turkish Cypriot leader claimed he was waging a struggle to save the Turkish Cypriots from becoming slaves of the Greek Cypriots and for Turkey to retain its guarantor status on the island.
Denktash said Turkish Cypriots were being misled into thinking he had serious differences with Turkey.
He said he had tabled his amendments to the UN plan, adding that a solution could only be achieved if a significant number of those changes were accepted.
“If these changes are rejected, it will no be us who will be raising obstacles on the path.
“We will not give up our rights,” Denktash.
Concerning the map included in the solution plan, Denktash said: “Forget about the map.
“Neither we, nor Turkey, nor the army accept this map.”
He added: “I have some principles to defend and I am trying to defend them; let the parliament in Turkey and the parliament here tell me ‘abandon these principles’.
“Then they will find someone else and make him sign.”
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.
