THE IMPORTANCE of contacts between the two sides was the main focus of a dinner in the north on Thursday night attended by former President Glafcos Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat.
The dinner last three hours. Speaking to journalists before the event, Clerides said the dinner was a good opportunity to meet and discuss general issues and to show how the two sides can be friendly.
Clerides said both shared a love for Cyprus and the wish to live peacefully and see Greek and Turkish Cypriots working together and being happy. This would give him great satisfaction, he said.
Asked what he thought the chances were that President Tassos Papadopoulos would meet Talat, Clerides said: “What I’m trying to say is that we have a common interest to bring prosperity and joy in this country. We can only achieve this if we work together for a solution of our problem.”
Talat said the dinner party was a good chance for a social meeting and said he hoped these kinds of meetings could contribute to the improvement of relations. As far as he was concerned these kinds of meetings would be continued, he said.
“We should make use of each occasion to meet and discuss the problems and see if we can move forward towards a solution of the Cyprus question,” said Talat.
Reports earlier in the week said Talat had sent the dinner invitation to Clerides weeks ago but it was decided not to cross to the north during the election campaign as Clerides is also the founder of opposition party DISY.
After the elections ended last Sunday, Clerides gave a positive response to the invitation. He attended with his daughter Katy Clerides, her husband and United Democrats member Costas Themistocleous.
It was four and a half years since Clerides had dined with a Turkish Cypriot leader. It was his dinner meeting then with Rauf Denktash that led to the UN-sponsored negotiations that fell by the wayside in April 2004 when Greek Cypriots rejected the Annan plan in referendum.
According to Turkish Anatolia News Agency, Turkish Cypriot officials played down the importance of Thursday’s dinner, describing it as simply a social event that Clerides was attending as a goodwill gesture.
“But the venue for the function at the presidential palace of the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus was expected to spark a storm of controversy among Greek Cyrpiots,” said Anatolia. “Even when Clerides held talks with then Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash in 2001, he did so not in the presidential palace but in his nearby residence.”
However there was no controversy. The government declined to comment in any depth on the issue.
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