MARCH 21 was fixed yesterday as the date for the much-anticipated meeting between President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, as both sides jockeyed for position with jibes about the other’s commitment to progress.
The date was decided at a meeting between Presidential Commissioner George Iacovou and Talat aide Ozdil Nami overseen by UNFICYP Chief of Mission Michael Moller.
The meeting will take place in the United Nations Protected Area in Nicosia.
In a written statement, Mïller said yesterday’s encounter “took place in a very cordial and constructive atmosphere and that the aides reached a great degree of convergence on the issues discussed, including on the possible future opening of the Ledra Street crossing” (Ledra Street hope: See page 3).
But speaking on his departure for Brussels, Christofias last night said the statements coming from the Turkish Cypriot side were not encouraging, as they accused Greek Cypriot politicians of trying to hide their “non-solution policy” in a different guise.
This was coupled with increasing rumblings from the north about resurrecting the rejected Annan plan, while the Greek Cypriot side intends to insist on the July 8 agreement.
“It appears indeed as if we will face problems,” Christofias said.
“The statements are a challenge but I will not answer that challenge now.
I will answer it in my meeting with Mr Talat. I prefer to speak person to person with Mr Talat and to tell him our positions.”
Christofias added he didn’t want to second guess the positions of the other side.
However, he made it clear that for the Greek Cypriot side, the starting point would be the July 8, 2006 agreement, “if the effort for a solution of the Cyprus problem is to be a serious one”.
“There is no other agreement or anything else on the table and we are not speaking of stifling timetables,” he added.
Asked if he would continue meeting Talat if the Turkish side disagreed with this, Christofias said he would not answer that question at the moment.
“Not without first seeing what Mr Talat is thinking. If I second guess their positions it only pours oil on the fire,” the President said.
Turkish Cypriot ‘Prime Minister’ Ferdi Sabit Soyer was yesterday quoted as saying that Greek Cypriot politicians were “creating a method in order to hide their own non-solution stance.”
He said this was creating a conflict before negotiations even started.
Soyer said statements by Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou in Brussels were part of the “pre-negotiations tactics”.
“We have many answers to give them, but we prefer to talk after the negotiating table is set up, because the Turkish Cypriot people have enough experience as not to play this game. The Turkish Cypriot people know that the aim of esteemed Christofias and the other Greek Cypriot politicians is to create a smokescreen for their non-solution policy by influencing the Greek Cypriot and the world public opinion. We will not play this game,” said Soyer.
Commenting on Christofias’ reported statement that the Turkish Cypriot leader should cut his ties with Turkey, Soyer said: “They are playing a comic game, because even the fact that these words have been said in Athens is an expression of how comic they are. We have no complex against Turkey and Greece. The whole of the Greek Cypriot political class, however, has come to the present days by being formed with their Enosis cause…”
