EXPLORATORY talks aimed at a resumption of Cyprus negotiations began in New York yesterday between the UN and a Greek Cypriot envoy sent to assess the possibilities on the ground.
Tasos Tzionis, the director of the President’s Diplomatic Office was tasked last week to meet UN officials and set out the positions of the Greek Cypriot side with regard to what procedures could be followed if talks were to resume.
Accompanied by Cypriot ambassador to the UN, Andreas Mavroyiannis, Tzionis met UN Undersecretary for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast yesterday for an hour and 15 minutes.
After the meeting, Tzionis limited himself to saying: “The only thing I have to say today is that I had a meeting focused on procedural matters.” The talks would continue this week, he added. The next meeting is expected to take place today.
“This is the first of what may be several meetings,” UN spokeswoman Marie Okabe told reporters, adding that no word on results was likely until the talks were over.
According to reports, Prendergast will be on the island on May 28. UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan has indicated that he would make a decision whether to send his envoy to the region following his meeting with Tzionis.
President Tassos Papadopoulos said on Sunday that that there should be no conditions, restrictions or other predetermined issues during any new round of Cyprus talks. “No talks will start if there are not the prerequisites for success,” he said.
He said the meetings Tzionis would have would be both procedural and substantial.
“Our position remains the same, and this is what we are looking into with these meetings in New York, so that the agenda and the procedure will be determined with the best accuracy to give hope that a new round of talks will be able to lead to a successful outcome. No conditions, no restrictions and other predetermined issues,” he said.
He said the government had undertaken that the consultations would be kept confidential, to the fullest extent possible. “We will keep our promise, as we have done for quite a long time now,” he said, adding that neither had the government changed its position with regards to what procedure it wanted in relations to new talks.
“We do not set conditions or preconditions. We just express the belief that there should be the prerequisites for a successful dialogue,” he said.
“We have our positions, we know what we want and as I always say to the US if the US and other foreigners claim to have the right to tell us what is good for our country, I think the Cyprus people have at least the right to judge by himself what is good for them. I don’t believe that foreigners can know better than us, for us, what is good for our country and our people.”
The government is insisting that it is not prepared to give away its negotiating positions by detailing the changes it wants to the Annan plan in writing as was demanded by the Secretary-general.
However, during an impromptu meeting between President Tassos Papadopoulos and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in Moscow last Monday, the Secretary-general appeared to have relented.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Council of Europe Summit in Warsaw yesterday, Papadopoulos highlighted that the property issue would be at the core of any new round of negotiations. “It is a fundamental demand of ours that those claiming they avidly seek the resumption of talks should not take unilateral actions to create faits accomplis that aim to eradicate a very important aspect of the Annan plan, the issue of property, an issue that we have intensely raised and, if we begin talks, will be at the core of discussions,” he said.
