UN Secretary-General Welcomes Turkish Cypriot Demonstrations

by Lorys Charalambous, Tax-News.com, Cyprus

17 January 2003

Speaking earlier this week, UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan welcomed Monday's demonstrations in Cyprus, during which an estimated 70,000 Turkish Cypriots took to the streets, urging their leader, Rauf Denktash to constructively negotiate on the UN peace plan or resign.

Mr Annan observed on Tuesday that in his opinion, reunification of the Island is now 'within striking distance'.

'I am pleased that people are out in the streets promoting peace, demanding peace and demanding unification,' he observed, continuing: 'Obviously, it is up to the people to the people to decide who their leader is and up to the leader to decide whether they persist or resign. But whether a leader resigns or stays on, I think the people are speaking, and it is very difficult not to listen to the people when they come out in those numbers.'

Although it remains to be seen to what degree the increased international and domestic pressure will influence the Turkish Cypriot leader's attitude towards the negotiations, talks between the Greek Cypriot President, Glafcos Clerides and Mr Denktash continued this week, and according to a statement released by the Greek Cypriot government yesterday:

'(During Thursday's meeting) They reiterated their commitment to negotiate on the basis of the revised UN plan for a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem, and agreed to hold another direct meeting tomorrow, 17 January, in order to come up with a programme for intensive negotiations during the coming weeks.'

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