‘We were right about Gul’

THE GOVERNMENT said yesterday it was obvious that Turkish Foreign Minster Abdullah Gul had not wanted to discuss the Cyprus issue on his trip this week to Athens.
Speaking at his daily press briefing, Government Spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides said: “Despite the efforts of the Foreign Minister of Greece to discuss issues relating to the Cyprus question, Mr Gul proved that he was not ready to discuss these issues in Athens.”

Chrysostomides said this proved that President Tassos Papadopoulos had been right in his predictions that there would be no Turkish gesture on Cyprus during the high-profile visit.

Reports from Athens said yesterday that Gul has expressed Turkey’s desire to solve the Cyprus problem, but insisted that “the realities” should be taken into consideration.

After meeting Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, Gul told the Cyprus News Agency that Turkey was accepting the Annan plan as a basis for negotiations, but stressed that Ankara would demand changes. Gul wrapped up his visit to the Greek capital yesterday.

Meanwhile, the US State Department’s deputy spokesman, Adam Ereli, has said that American Special Co-ordinator for Cyprus Thomas Weston, due on the island late last night, was continuing to urge all parties to the Cyprus issue to express the necessary political will to resume negotiations.

Fielding questions on Weston’s current trip to Ankara, Athens and Nicosia, Ereli said the purpose of his trip was the same as it had always been, to convey US views on the way ahead to a Cyprus settlement, and to discuss this with the parties involved.

British Minister for Europe Denis MacShane said yesterday that Britain’s Foreign Secretary Jack Straw had also held discussions with Abdullah Gul in New York last month on the “the urgent need” to work towards a Cyprus settlement on the basis of the Annan plan.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.