Could talks be pushed back to September?
By Jean Christou

SPECULATION has been mounting that substantial negotiations between the two Cypriot leaders will not begin until September.

Even the international community yesterday appeared to be starting to resign themselves to the fact, although to satisfy them, there would at least need to be one or two meetings before the summer break in August.

The Turkish Cypriot side says it is ready to begin talks on June 21, but President Demetris Christofias remains non-committal on a starting date.

He believes the working groups and technical committees are not working fast enough to lay the necessary groundwork for talks.

The two leaders will meet in the second half of next month to review the situation but reports have begun surfacing that it could be September before they sit down at the table.

“We’re hearing all sorts of things,” said one diplomatic source. ‘That would be quite late, after the summer break.”

The diplomat said he had heard September mentioned through the grapevine but thought the leaders might manage one or two meetings at least, in July.

However July 14-20 is the week of the 1974 anniversaries, which if avoided, would push the leaders to July 21.

“They can’t afford to leave it too late,” said the source. “I think they could have something in July… as long as it [negotiation] starts. They would need this to maintain the momentum.”

During his visit to Brussels earlier this week, Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat repeated that he was ready for talks on July 21 and hoped to solve the Cyprus issue by the end of the year.

He knew the Greek Cypriot side wasn’t ready for talks, he said in an interview with the Associated Press.

But he said he remained optimistic that he and Christofias could work it out.

“I am really optimistic because there has been a change on the Greek Cypriot side," Talat told the Associated Press in an interview.

"It is quite possible to reach a solution by the end of 2008," Talat said, adding a lot of technical work had already been done during previous attempts to reach a deal. He said that in face-to-face negotiations the two leaders would concentrate on the "thorniest" remaining issues, including property rights, power-sharing and security.

"We agreed already on March 21 that we would begin negotiations three months from that date. This was declared," Talat said. "But... the Greek Cypriot side argued that this is not the fact."

"My impression is that Greek Cypriots are not ready to start on the 21st of June, so this is a problem and we have to overcome this," he added.

Talat’s spokesman Hasan Ercakica was quoted yesterday as saying his side would continue to exhibit a behaviour that would encourage the Greek Cypriot side to talks as soon as possible.

He said the meeting between the leaders last Friday had been extremely positive.

Presidential Commissioner George Iacovou, who is overseeing the working groups and technical committees was in Athens yesterday, where he met Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyianni.

Iacovou said he briefed Bakoyianni on the la-*test*-('") developments. The Greek Foreign Minister is expected to visit the island on June 13.

Commenting on the process, Iacovou said it was the Greek Cypriot side’s wish to see positive results at the level of the working groups, the ones dealing with the substantive issues such as property, territory and security.



Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2008