De Soto in Ankara to push for Cyprus solution

UNITED Nations special envoy Alvaro de Soto said yesterday it was still possible to find a solution to the division of Cyprus in the coming months if all sides seized the opportunity.

De Soto was in Ankara for talks with Turkish officials aimed at pushing ahead the peace process on Cyprus, ahead of a looming EU deadline with European leaders due to announce at a summit in Copenhagen in December that Cyprus can join the bloc as soon as 2004.

Turkey has threatened to annex the occupied areas if the EU accepts Cyprus without a solution, a move that would spark a crisis between the EU and Turkey, which itself is a candidate to join the bloc.

“I believe it’s possible to reach a solution before then,” De Soto told NTV television in an interview, declining to comment on whether it would still be possible to solve the problem after the Copenhagen summit on December 12- 13.

“Let’s concentrate on before Copenhagen,” he said.

“There’s an opportunity there so we hope that it will be seized,” he said.

The talks are further complicated by a general election in Turkey on November 3 and few expect Turkey to make any move to promote a solution before then.

Turkey wants the EU to set a date at the Copenhagen summit for the start of its own membership negotiations. A European Commission report this month said Turkey had not fully met the conditions to start talks, but Ankara is still hopeful.

Though Turkey’s EU candidacy is not officially linked to finding a solution on Cyprus, EU diplomats have said it will be difficult for Turkey to move ahead if it does not help resolve the Cyprus issue.

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.