TURKISH Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat has sent a new letter to UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan complaining that President Tassos Papadopoulos was rejecting the idea of a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation.
The move came after an interview Papadopoulos gave to the French Magazine L’Express, in which he said: “We categorically reject a state that would comprise two separate zones and two types of community structures, given that about 82 per cent of the population is Greek.”
Papadopoulos said his quotes had been misinterpreted and taken out of context by the Turkish Cypriot side. L’Express yesterday published a clarification saying it had not retained all the president’s comments on the issue of federation, but not denying the substance of the contentious quote.
Turkish Cypriot media said on Sunday that Talat was responding to the comment by sending a letter to Annan.
In his letter, Talat said the Turkish Cypriot Side had been waiting to establish a fruitful dialogue with the Greek Cypriot side with the purpose of launching renewed negotiations under UN auspices.
“We were astonished and dismayed with Mr Papadopoulos’ remarks,” Talat reportedly said in the letter, adding that the statements contradicted the conclusions of the 1977-1979 High Level Agreements and the parameters established in four-decades-old negotiations carried out between the two parties under the auspices of the UN.
Talat also said Papdopoulos’ comments ran counter to the will of the international community, and particularly to that of the EU, which supports a solution based on a bi-communal, bi-zonal federation.
He cited the remarks as proof that Papadopoulos’ comment at the UN General Assembly in December last year that what he had in mind was “solving the Cyprus problem via osmosis”, was not just a slip of the tongue.
“At the point now on Cyprus, as long as all parties to the solution remain silent, all hopes for a solution, already invisible because of the Greek Cypriot side’s lack of political willpower, will become even more seriously harmed,” said Talat in the letter.
He warned that if the current situation and climate continued, the prospect for new negotiations would be seriously damaged. He said he had been “shocked and disappointed” to read the comments in the French magazine.
Talat told Annan: “I want to reaffirm that the Turkish Cypriot side is firmly committed to a solution for the Cyprus problem under your good offices and on the basis of the Annan plan.”
