THE FURORE over the proposed technical committees turned Orwellian yesterday when President Tassos Papadopoulos declared that they were, in fact, not technical committees at all.
Answering reporters’ questions relating to Monday’s meeting between Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat and the UN Secretary-general’s Special Representative Michael Moller to discuss the technical committees, Papadopoulos said: “They are not technical committees but committees on matters of a technical nature.”
The government has been spinning what was agreed during the meeting in Paris between Papadopoulos and UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan since February 28 but has gone into overdrive since the weekend after the publication of a letter to Talat from Undersecretary-general for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari.
Initially after the Paris meeting, Papadopoulos told reporters that it had been agreed that Varosha, demilitarisation and settlers were among the issues that would be addressed during the proposed confidence-building measures.
The announcement surprised and angered the Turkish Cypriot leadership, which had assumed the talks would only focus on technical issues like waste management, water resource management and traffic congestion.
For weeks the government had been insisting that there would be a parallel process, one for technical talks and another on the bigger issues. However, although the UN is not averse to such a move, the Turkish Cypriot side has not been asked to take part in any political-level talks.
Gambari clarified in his letter to Talat that Annan and Papadopoulos expressed their common sentiment that “it would be beneficial for all concerned” if progress could also be achieved on other issues such as de-mining, disengagement of forces, and Famagusta but: “Without relating these issues to the technical committees,” it said.
“It was agreed that further work needed to be done on them at a time and in a manner to be determined by both sides in order for progress to be achieved towards a comprehensive settlement,” the letter added.
It was clear from the letter that the technical talks between the two sides were only a stepping stone to discussing the core issues, and not a parallel process unless both sides agreed otherwise.
The battle over semantics was in full swing on Monday with the government defending its own interpretation of the Paris meeting.
Government spokesman George Lillikas reasoned that it was obvious the technical committees would be discussing the big issues since Ankara had made no move to halt them.
The implication was that Turkey – dismissed as the intransigent side by Greek Cypriots – would have jumped at the prospect of long-winded consultations that would not push the peace process forward in any significant way.
According to Lillikas’ rationale, the lukewarm response to Paris meant Ankara was not especially happy with what was afoot, which in turn suggested the technical committees would be making real progress.
Commenting yesterday on statements by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the Paris meeting between Annan and Papadopoulos was routine and that nothing had been agreed, Lillikas said this was how the Turkish side had interpreted the joint statement issued after the meeting. Gambari’s letter said there was no joint statement, only a statement “following” the meeting.
“Our view is different,” said Papadopoulos of Erdogan’s comments. “We know what we discussed with the Secretary General and what the joint statement says,” he said
“Our wish is that the Turkish Cypriots and Ankara will respond positively to create the preconditions that will lead us, through serious preparation, to new talks which will have realistic prospects in order to reach a solution,” he added. He repeated that two categories of subjects would be discussed at the ‘non-technical’ committees.
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