Cyprus Talks Get Off To A Good Start

by Lorys Charalambous, Tax-News.com, Nicosia

18 January 2002

Wednesday's first formal encounter between President Glafcos Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash after seven years began well, with the two leaders (who have been friends since childhood) agreeing to meet three times a week, starting from Monday. "We had a very good, very good meeting. Everything has gone very well," Denktas said in response to questions shouted by some 200 journalists who had been waiting for the two to emerge Wednesday.

After the meeting, which took place at a special facility within the United Nations Protected Area (UNPA) at Nicosia Airport, UN special envoy for Cyprus Alvaro de Soto said it had been a "very encouraging start". "They engaged immediately on the substance," De Soto told Greek and Turkish Cypriot reporters gathered in a fenced-off area outside the airport. "They will reflect for the remainder of this week on what they discussed today," De Soto said.

The UN envoy, who arrived in Cyprus on Sunday with his own legal adviser, will remain in Cyprus. "I consider myself settled in Cyprus for the duration of the talks," he said. The UN expects 10 rounds of negotiations, the majority of which will take place in Cyprus. One round each will also probably be held in Geneva and New York.

Ergun Olgun, a close aide who accompanied Denktash to the talks, said: "The important thing was the determination and the commitment of both sides to engage...It's going to be a sustained effort from both sides. There is an awareness of the need to move as fast as we can possibly make it. There is a sense of working hard and giving it a good shot," he said.

The talks have been set without preconditions and with all issues on the table, which constitutes a major step forward. The format sets aside the thorny issue of recognition of the breakaway Turkish Cypriot regime, which has been the major contributor to the downfall of previous efforts, most recently the five rounds of UN-sponsored proximity talks between 1999 and 2000.

Greece yesterday praised the resumption of the talks. "I believe the Turkish side and the Turkish Cypriot side won't show once again the same abstinence as they did in the past," Greek Government Spokesman Christos Protopappas said.

Meanwhile, Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, on a four-day trip to Washington, told Vice President Dick Cheney Tuesday that he hoped the talks would bring a settlement, but added that any deal would have to accept the principle of two states on the island. The Cyprus question was one of the issues expected to be discussed at a meeting between Ecevit and George W. Bush last night.

The European Union will however have as much influence as the US on resolution of the problem. The EU has said that it will accept Cyprus as a member by 2003 even if there has been no settlement by then, which led Turkey to threaten to 'annex' the Turkish enclave on the island, although it has recently backed away from that position.

For Turkey, it is entry to the EU that is the great prize, and its involvement in Cyprus is just a pawn in that game. Solving the Cyprus question is a necessary but not sufficient condition for Turkey's own entry: the EU commissioner for enlargement, Gunter Verheugen, declared on Wednesday that a settlement of the dispute would not be enough to bring an opening of membership talks with Turkey.

Verheugen said it was Turkey's commitment to the UN to support efforts aimed to resolve the Cyprus problem, but before Turkish accession talks could start Turkey has to take a series of democratization steps demanded by the EU.

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