Cyprus-Forum.com

[boulio]

can you list some insan

Turkish side had proposed similar confidence building-measures about one year before the Greek side has proposed their own confidence building measures.

[insan]

Reuters - "Greek Cypriots reject Denktash proposal":

July 21, 2003

The Greek Cypriot government on Friday rejected a Turkish Cypriot proposal to give back part of the abandoned city of Famagusta in return for the reopening of the island's former international airport.

Greek Cypriot officials said President Tassos Papadopoulos had sent a letter to Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash saying he was willing to return to negotiations over the divided Mediterranean island only on the basis of a U.N. plan which has been rejected by Denktash.

"The letter will be delivered today," government spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides told Reuters on Friday. Earlier in the day Foreign Minister George Iacovou said Papadopoulos had made it clear the Greek Cypriot side would resume talks only under the U.N. blueprint to end almost 30 years of division.

Iacovou said the Cyprus government felt that Denktash's proposal was designed to "confuse and mislead."

When Denktash made the surprise proposal on July 11, Turkey simultaneously announced it would open its air and sea ports to Greek Cypriot traffic if Nicosia agreed to the Turkish Cypriot offer.

Nicosia airport was abandoned in 1974 after Turkey invaded following a Greek Cypriot coup backed by Greece. It now lies in the U.N.-controlled buffer zone.

Under sanctions since 1974, Turkish Cypriots use a small airport near Nicosia where only planes from Turkey land. By contrast, the internationally recognized Greek Cypriot side operates a bustling international airport at Larnaca which is a hub linking western airlines to Middle East markets.

Denktash also offered to open up the Famagusta suburb of Varosha to resettlement by its mainly Greek Cypriot residents. Varosha is a crumbling ghost town on the island's east coast frequented only by U.N. peacekeepers and Turkish soldiers since it was abandoned after the coup.

Greek Cypriots had reacted coolly to the Turkish offer from the start, calling it an attempt to entrench partition.

Ethnic Greeks and Turks have lived apart since the invasion, despite decades of international pressure to reunite. Ankara still keeps 30,000 troops in northern Cyprus.









Denktash looks back to Gali plan
Nicosia will examine issue
Turkish-Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash said yesterday that he had proposed to Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan that Nicosia’s international airport be opened and that the Greek-Cypriot refugees be allowed back to the town of Varosha. Both the town and the airport have stood desolate since the Turkish invasion in 1974.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul expressed support for the proposals and suggested that Cypriot aircraft and ships could use Turkish air space and territorial waters if Nicosia accepted them. “This will ensure the growth of bilateral trade,” said Gul, adding that he too had sent Annan a letter asking for support.

Denktash proposed that Nicosia airport and Varosha, part of the city of Famagusta, function under temporary UN administration.

The Cypriot government is to hold a meeting chaired by Papadopoulos on Monday, “to study and decide on the general issues raised by Mr Denktash’s letter and, specifically, the proposal for the reopening of Nicosia airport,” the president said in a statement yesterday.

Papadopoulos noted, however, that Denktash was avoiding a plan presented by Annan for a comprehensive solution. “Instead of discussing an overall solution for Cyprus, Mr Denktash has — with Ankara’s full backing — inaugurated a new strategy for maintaining the occupation regime and simply introducing ‘good neighborly relations,’” he said.

Papadopoulos said that Denktash was referring to part of a settlement plan proposed by former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali in 1993-94 which Denktash had rejected in his insistence on international recognition for the Turkish-occupied part of Cyprus.

The Cypriot government spokesman, Kypros Chrysostomides, responded to Gul’s statement regarding the opening of Turkish air space and territorial waters to Cypriots, saying: “This was discussed in the past as well and we said that this is Turkey’s obligation on the basis of international institutions, the rules of the World Trade Organization and the customs union with the European Union... It is something which Turkey will have to do in any case.”



http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_ar ... 2003_31805

[Alexandros Lordos]

Insan,

I agree with you that both leaderships have gone wrong: Instead of focusing on solving the problem here in Cyprus, they are always obsessed with creating impressions abroad, as if such impressions would last anyway. It is like a couple who is not getting along well, but instead of sitting down and sorting things out between them, each one goes to the neighbours to convince them that it is the other one who is to blame.

As for the motives of TCs for a solution ... well, I won't say anything more about it here, but in a few minutes I will post about this issue in the thread about my survey - Check it out.

[insan]

Insan,

I agree with you that both leaderships have gone wrong: Instead of focusing on solving the problem here in Cyprus, they are always obsessed with creating impressions abroad, as if such impressions would last anyway. It is like a couple who is not getting along well, but instead of sitting down and sorting things out between them, each one goes to the neighbours to convince them that it is the other one who is to blame.

I completely agree with you.

As for the motives of TCs for a solution ... well, I won't say anything more about it here, but in a few minutes I will post about this issue in the thread about my survey - Check it out.

Ok. I'm waiting

[boulio]

but dektash is motive is direct flights to the north for offering famagusta,nowing full well that the g/c would reject that.

[-mikkie2-]

The issue of the opening of Nicosia airport was a non starter from the start.

The biggest problem with Nicosia airport was safety. Aircraft today are much larger and require much bigger marigins for safety. The Pendathactilos mountain range is also a big problem for aircraft for the same reasons. This issue would affect Tymbou airport as well. I have seen aircraft take off from there and they have to bank sharply left to avoid the mountains.

There were also hidden prerequisits in the Denktas proposal - the talk was for seperate terminals, one in TC side the other in GC side and separate access roads! Great way to run an efficient airport!

The final propblem with Nicosia airport is the expansion of the capital. Much of the area around the airport is now residential.

Finally, Larnaca airport is probably the best location because there is ample room for expansion, the aircraft take off and land over water so safety is much better controlled.

I agree that chances and opportunities have been spurned, but I also think that the RoC proposals for use of Larnaca port or the method of operating Famagusta port by both communities were reasonable proposals that the TC leadership simply would not entairtain.

[brother]

Its like asking two known mentally disturbed idiots to play chess, it just will not happen.