NY talks going nowhere fast

By Jean Christou, Cyprus Mail, February 12, 2004

Talks in New York aimed at launching a resumption of negotiations on Cyprus will continue for a third day today as the stubbornness of the two leaders prompted the UN to call in the guarantor powers to make them toe the line.

Yesterday’s was the second meeting between President Tassos Papadopoulos and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash at UN headquarters in the race to reach a Cyprus settlement on the basis of the Annan plan before the island joins the EU on May 1.



The meeting lasted one hour and twenty five minutes, but like Tuesday’s ended inconclusively. UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan had invited the sides to New York to agree on a programme for the resumption of talks, in what was expected to be a one-off meeting.

Tellingly, no comments were made by anyone involved in the talks after yesterday’s meeting, which began at 11pm Cyprus time. At 12.15am Denktash left the UN building, followed not long afterwards by Papadopoulos. Unlike on Tuesday, UN special envoy Alvaro de Soto did not make any statements.

However numerous reports earlier yesterday made it obvious that the talks were not running smoothly, and Annan’s spokesman said the Secretary-general felt it necessary to call in big guns to put pressure on two sides. De Soto had spent most of the day meeting behind the scenes with the Greek and Turkish Cypriot delegations before the afternoon meeting

Annan’s spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said Annan had asked the guarantor powers -- Britain, Greece and Turkey -- to send delegations to New York in case they were needed. Eckhard said that Annan had asked the three countries to put "pressure on the parties to negotiate seriously their differences and come to agreement that can be put to a referendum, to simultaneous referenda, on the two sides of the island," by May 1.

According to Reuters, during Tuesday’s talks both sides resisted Annan's demand that he be allowed to set terms on issues which the two sides have not yet agreed "Both sides behaved badly," an unidentified diplomat close to the talks said. "Denktash is very critical of the whole thing and no one seems to be reining him in, while Papadopoulos doesn't seem too interested in making progress."

"The hope is that overnight, having gotten it out of their system, they will now be ready to sit down and work things out," the diplomat added, referring to Tuesday night. CyBC television last night quoted a Russian UN diplomat as saying that Annan was disturbed by the attitude of the two leaders.

CNN Turk journalist Mehmet Ali Birand, who accompanied the Turkish Cypriot side to New York, reported that the leaders had objected to the strict timetable imposed by Annan for negotiations. They also objected to committing to a referendum prior to any talks, and did not want to accept that the UN could “fill in the blanks” on unresolved issues, an offer made to Annan by Ankara last month. The Secretary-general reportedly told them to bring him an alternative that would fit the time frame. Annan wants an agreement by the end of March and a referendum in April so a reunited Cyprus can join the EU on May 1.

Birand said that he was told by foreign observers that while the Turkish side was relaxed, the Greek side was stubborn. “The two leaders had teamed up. They clearly showed that they wanted to do away with the Annan plan through different objections. Both showed that they were unwilling to negotiate,” he said. “What no one said openly -- but what everyone knew -- was that the ‘big brothers’ might intervene at the last minute.

“If they had come forward and said, ‘Secretary-general, we are not accepting your proposals,’ they might have been more honest.”

Reports quoting Greek Cypriot sources said yesterday that the biggest objection from the government was the issue of a referendum. Annan wants them to commit to separate ballots prior to an agreement being reached but the Greek Cypriot side wants to wait until the plan is agreed. Eckhard said Annan was willing to accept the changes to his plan that they both agreed on. "Should the two sides agree on changes to the plan he ready to make those changes," Eckhard said. "So it's really up to the two sides to come up with a common platform for the referenda. That's what he's trying to facilitate." The Cyprus News Agency, quoting an unnamed US State Department official, said the UN also asked the US to talk to Athens and Ankara. The official said that Secretary of State Colin Powell was active and had talked to his Turkish counterpart, Abdullah Gul, yesterday morning and had planned to talk to the other parties later in the day.

The US State Department special co-ordinator for Cyprus, Thomas Weston, met Papadopoulos and said “some ideas” had been discussed. ''I am not going to make a comment on optimism or pessimism, we are looking forward to another session this afternoon with the Secretary-general and the two leaders and we will see what happens in that session. I am not making a judgment on optimism or pessimism until that takes place,'' he said.

Britain’s former Cyprus envoy, Lord Hannay, who worked on the Cyprus issue for seven years, also threw in his halfpenny’s worth in a telephone interview with CyBC last night, although he admitted not having direct access to what was going on. “I do think this attempt by the Secretary-general to get an early conclusion is a hopeful one, but no-one who has dealt with the Cyprus problem over the years…can believe that it’s certain to succeed,” he said, adding that the interests of all parties would be served if the talks could be resumed in a really purposeful way with the object of an early conclusion.

Hannay said it was in illusion to suppose that the Annan plan could be changed in any major way to the benefit of one party against the other party. “That just won’t work,” he said.

He said that the signs out of Turkey seemed to show that it understood the advantage of an early settlement. He said that although he believed a settlement could be reached after the May 1 deadline, it would be far better to have one before that date. Turkey needs progress on Cyprus to further its own EU aspirations, which are up for review in December.

Despite the bad press over the alleged behaviour of the two sides in New York, government spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides repeated earlier yesterday that the Greek Cypriot side was sincere in its efforts for a settlement. He said it was the “positive atmosphere” of Tuesday’s meeting that had led to the second one yesterday.

“The Greek Cypriot side is sincerely interested in progress in the New York procedure as well as in the efforts to reach a settlement,” he said'.

In Athens, Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Tassos Yiannitsis said: "We are in a process of constant contact and talks to see how we will be able to reach the point so that negotiations can begin."

"We will wait to see how the meeting (Wednesday’s) develops, so we can see more specifically where we are and what the prospects are," he added.

In Ankara, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan reiterated that Turkey was committed to a solution. "We are obliged to seek a solution without damaging Turkey's historical heritage and interests," he told a meeting of his Justice and Development Party (AKP).