SPECULATION is building around the looming Turkey-EU crisis, ranging from possible mediation by the Spanish Foreign Minster, to a Nicosia-Athens rift, to US plans to resolve the crisis.
Several reports surfaced that a visit here over the weekend by Spain’s Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos was connected with the Finnish plan.
France’s Le Monde said Moratinos had been entrusted Finland’s EU Presidency to be a mediator in the solving of the Cyprus issue “on account of the excellent relations between Ankara and Madrid”.
According to the paper’s sources, during his stay in Ankara and Nicosia, Moratinos spoke with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul, President Tassos Papadopoulos and with Foreign Minister George Lillikas.
However a spokesman at the Spanish embassy in Nicosia said yesterday they were surprised by the reports. “He was not coming on any particular ‘mission’,” said the spokesman. “He was not entrusted by the EU or any country. He just likes Cyprus.”
Finnish ambassador Risto Piipponen told the Cyprus Mail there are “all sorts of things in the papers”.
“We have not given any task to anyone else,” he said. “We are not represented by anyone else. We ourselves are capable of dealing with the presidency by ourselves.” Piipponen said that did not mean Finland would not appreciate support from its EU partners, which have endorsed the presidency’s proposal.
“Spain would be one of those countries but it has no particular role to act as a mediator,” the ambassador said.
More denials were issued forth by the government after reports in Phileleftheros said the US was preparing a plan for the return of Varosha in facilitate direct trade between the north and the EU. The plan was to help ease Turkey’s accession course, the paper said.
It quoted US ambassador in Athens, Charles Ries as saying the US could not press Turkey due to the situation in Iraq but “he was quick to point out” that Greece and Briton could.
According to the paper, Washington’s proposal involved the return of 20 per cent of Varosha under UN administration, but beyond that there was no clear picture how the city would be returned to the Greek Cypriots.
Government spokesman Christodoulos Pashiardis said there was no information on a US proposal.
He was also quick to dismiss reports in the Athens press that a rift had developed between Foreign Minister George Lillikas and his Greek counterpart Dora Bakoyianni. The two Ministers met in Athens at the weekend.
“There is no crisis in relations between the two Ministers,” he said. ‘There is only harmonious collaboration, which was reaffirmed during their recent meeting in Athens.” Pashiardis said Athens would continue to stand by Cyprus.
The speculation of a rift may have come about due to statements made by Lillikas to Athens newspaper To Vima in an interview published on Saturday.
Lillikas was quoted as saying that Nicosia would not shirk from using its power of veto even if all 24 of its fellow EU member states opposed its actions. This is clearly not the position of the Greek government, which Lillikas apparently included in the ‘24’.
Asked about the possibility of a Cyprus veto, Lillikas said that Cyprus would defend its national interests. “By defending its interests, in this particular case, Cyprus is defending the EU credibility as well,” he said.
But Bakoyianni told Reuters in an interview that although Greece believed the EU should not proceed with specific accession negotiations with Turkey before a key progress report on November 8 evaluates Ankara’s reform progress, she shied away from the use of the word veto.
“I don’t like this kind of vocabulary among friends and partners. In the EU, issues are procedural and we move procedurally,” she said.
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