Government rejects four-party talks suggestion

By Jean Christou

THE GOVERNMENT yesterday rejected any notion of four-party talks on Cyprus which would involve Greece and Turkey, although the Turkish Cypriot side has indicated it would favour such an approach.

Both Foreign Minster Yiannakis Cassoulides and Government Spokesman Michalis Papapetrou said that if Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash was ready for talks, there was always the framework set out by UN Security Council resolutions.

The resolutions call for a resumption of talks without preconditions, something the Greek Cypriot side says it is ready to comply with.

Denktash has in the past said he would not return to the negotiating table unless his breakaway regime was recognised as a state.

However, Denktash said on Wednesday he might agree to talks if the US invited Turkey and Greece to the table as well.

“I am aware through the press that (US President Bill) Clinton will call for a four-way meeting,” Denktash told Turkish Cypriot television. “If there will be this sort of invitation, we will appraise it as a course of action, as an exercise, and I think we will be able to think positively.”

Denktash said there were still major obstacles to any talks — in particular his own status at any meetings.

“How will he (Clinton) do this? Will the Greek Cypriot and the Greek side accept? Will Turkey accept? If he makes a call to us what will we be called?” he said.

Papapetrou said the government would not facilitate Denktash’s “spasmodical moves”, which he said were aimed at avoiding the responsibilities set out for the Turkish side by the UN resolutions and by the international community.

He stated categorically that the government rejected any idea of a four-party meeting before or after negotiations.

US President Bill Clinton’s special emissary Alfred Moses and State Department Coordinator Thomas Weston were due in Ankara yesterday for talks with Turkish President Suleyman Demirel and Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit.

The US envoys are due on the island next week following their visit to Ankara and Athens.

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.