THE TWO leaders are “inching along” every day in the talks, said the UN’s Special Adviser to Cyprus Alexander Downer yesterday after another session between President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat.
The two discussed property and will continue to do so next week, while their respective aides, Georgios Iacovou and Ozdil Nami, will meet during the course of the week to prepare the groundwork on categorisation of the various properties in question.
Downer noted that property was a “difficult issue” from both a legal and economic perspective, in a possible hint to the cost of compensation for properties that will not be returned in a final settlement.
Asked how long the two would discuss the property issue, Downer replied: “Until they feel satisfied that they have reached a sufficient level of agreement to move on to another chapter.”
On the issue of whether there was any progress, the Australian diplomat replied: “every day they are inching along”.
On his return from the talks, Talat told reporters that the two sides had reached greater convergence on the issue of property as a result of the work done by the two aides in the last week.
Asked to elaborate, Talat said that there was convergence on agreeing on the approach to categorising the properties in question. “We are not yet talking about criteria. We are not setting criteria. Don’t misunderstand. We are simply categorising the properties. That is what we are doing,” he said.
Running parallel with the talks on property is the key decision pending by the British Court of Appeal on the hot Orams case which will have an obvious impact on any consideration of property in Cyprus and abroad.
Following his meeting with Gordon Brown on Thursday, Christofias said progress in the talks had been made on the chapters of governance and EU affairs, but accused the Turkish Cypriot side of backtracking on the economy. He highlighted zero progress had been made on property, security, territory and the issue of settlers.
Christofias has come under a barrage of fire recently by his own coalition partners over his apparent concessions on the issues of governance and property. Both DIKO and EDEK have called on the president to withdraw his positions on the federal executive regarding the rotating presidency and weighted voting from the talks.
Government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou yesterday closed the door on backtracking from current positions, saying any such move would shatter its credibility.
“We are in the middle of negotiations. I think everyone can understand what it means for a negotiator to add, take away, return to or step back from positions, our negotiating ability and credibility will shatter,” he said.
On the criticism against the president’s positions on the executive, Stefanou had this to say: “The Cyprus problem has a history behind it. We are making a proposal where there is no veto, there is a system to overcome deadlock and co-responsibility for managing and running a common state.”
The spokesman said the current climate did not help the president in the negotiations, referring to claims that Christofias has gone back on principles regarding property before the issue has even been negotiated.
Despite Stefanou’s rejection of EDEK’s demand to withdraw the Greek Cypriot side’s bridging proposal on the executive, EDEK official Antonis Koutalianos said he did not see reason to leave the coalition at this point.
“If we see we are moving towards a bad solution, then yes, we will re-examine our position,” he said.
Speaking on his way to Cairo and Brussels, Foreign Minister Marcos Kyprianou yesterday called on members of his party, DIKO, to avoid making statements on the substance of the negotiations, especially those which lead the Greek Cypriot side to negotiating among itself in public.
In a probable dig at DIKO Vice-President Nicholas Papadopoulos, Kyprianou said there were more constructive ways to let the positions of the party be known, which would be helpful to both the party and the Greek Cypriots’ negotiating position.
