AS POLITICAL parties await a detailed briefing on the outcome of the Geneva talks, some adopted a more sober tone while others sought to rubbish the Switzerland meet as a waste of time.
The President, back in Cyprus yesterday, is expected to convene his advisory body, the National Council for a full lowdown of what he discussed with Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
On Wednesday evening Christofias, while still abroad, spoke with all or most of the party leaders on the phone giving them some idea of the talks in Geneva.
DISY boss Nikos Anastassiades said yesterday that during his brief conversation with Christofias, the latter assured him all would be revealed at the next session of the National Council.
“In the meantime we must avoid criticism or celebrations, either of which is not founded on reality,” Anastassiades said.
Noting that the current phase of the peace process was “critical,” he went on to advise patience, but did describe the Geneva meeting as a landmark.
Anastassiades also cautioned against the Cyprus problem being used for “election purposes, before the facts are in,” and pledged his party would act responsibly.
In Geneva, the UNSG said after the meeting that the Greek and Turkish Cypriot sides had made progress since their last get-together at in New York last November, but that more work must be done to reach further convergences on the outstanding core issues.
The two sides have agreed to intensify negotiations through a series of additional meetings in the coming weeks. The UN chief said he would be filing a report to the Security Council on the state of the talks at the end of February.
This latter point has anew triggered a debate here on whether the United Nations has set a timeframe for the talks – something which Greek Cypriots are fiercely opposed to.
But ruling AKEL asserted that the President was well aware of these pitfalls, and that it was up to the political world to lend their backing to Christofias.
“Of course we are not naïve. We know that some players are trying to back us into a corner. The President is striving precisely to avert these Turkish intentions,” said AKEL leader Andros Kyprianou.
“The Cassandras [doom-mongers] have been refuted,” he noted.
Government partners DIKO said that at first sight the Geneva talks appeared to have gone well, insofar as the UN made no mention of an interim agreement or of a five-way international conference.
Party spokesman Fotis Fotiou said what worried them were signs of growing Turkish intransigence, rather than President Christofias’ handling of the peace process.
Socialists EDEK saw no positive development from the Geneva meet. In a dig at the government camp, party chairman Yiannakis Omirou censured “the attempt at creating an “imaginary picture and an optimistic climate.
“The main question is what progress the UN Secretary-General was referring to,” Omirou said, adding:
“The picture we have is of intensifying Turkish intransigence. So was the Secretary-General trying to put a positive spin in order to give momentum to the talks? If that is the case, it is not in our favour.”
Meanwhile, speaking at a gathering of EU officials and diplomats at the European Policy Centre think-tank in Brussels yesterday, Turkey’s chief negotiator on EU accession Egemen Bagis said the Geneva meeting “went well,” adding that he was looking forward to the UN chief’s report to the Security Council in February.
Bagis said Ankara was ready to compromise on Cyprus, providing that such compromise were reciprocated by the Greek Cypriots.
He said Turkey could not accept a solution that left the Turkish Cypriot community on the island “socially, economically and politically isolated.”
