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Stop stalling, Talat told


‘Stop stalling’ advice as Talat visits Scandinavia

Swedish Foreign Minister makes notable volte face


By Menelaos Hadjicostis

A SUPPORT-seeking tour of Sweden and Finland garnered Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat advice to stop stalling and get the Gambari process moving again.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said the Gambari process shouldn’t be waylaid by "technical difficulties" if full-fledged reunification talks are to get back on track.
"I could advise not to waste time, to use all possibilities and create activity in all the processes. The technical difficulties experienced at the moment in the Gambari process should be overcome. Now they (difficulties) might seem important, but in the long term they might not be so important," Bildt told reporters after a three-hour working dinner with Talat in Stockholm.
Bildt’s words are tacit acknowledgement that the Gambari process – also known as the July 8 agreement – is the only means now in play able build the kind of momentum necessary to revive moribund settlement talks.
Castigated
That’s a notable volte face from the former Swedish Prime Minister who two years ago castigated President Tassos Papadopoulos and the Greek Cypriots for turning down the Annan Plan.
"The nationalist credentials of President Papadopoulos are (impeachable). He was the man that used the most (irredentist) and xenophobic language possible to defeat the UN peace plan for Cyprus in the referendum last year," Bildt wrote in his personal blog in a September 18, 2005 entry.
"These things should not be easily forgotten. Now, it has been the Greek Cypriots that have been sabotaging the efforts to bring the island back together again."
The Gambari process, named after ex-UN Under Secretary General for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari who brokered the agreement, was a Nicosia initiative designed to prepare the ground for what is widely perceived as a last chance at a Cyprus peace deal.
Tandem
The deal involved the setting up of technical committees to work in tandem with working groups.
While the technical committees would address day-to-day matters, working groups would grapple with issues closer to the core elements of an overall Cyprus settlement.
It’s understood Turkish Cypriots reluctance to engage in the Gambari process stems from fears it would eliminate all hopes of reviving the Annan Plan.
Moreover, Turkish Cypriots are unwilling to discuss property issues for fear it would stymie illegal Greek Cypriot property development in the occupied north.
However, the overriding reason that the Gambari process has been shelved is Ankara’s own decision to call off any diplomacy on Cyprus ahead of crucial parliamentary elections next month.
Shirking blame for the impasse, Talat spun the Gambari process as a Greek Cypriot "delaying tactic" to a settlement.
Talat, who wraps up his four-day tour of Sweden and Finland today, said he asked Bildt for support on EU direct trade with the occupied north.
Talat said the visit – on Bildt’s invitation - offered him the opportunity to express Turkish Cypriot positions as an answer to Nicosia which can promulgate its views within the EU at will thanks to its membership to the bloc.
Direct trade
"Sweden is very close to the Turkish Cypriots (and follows) a policy that is understanding of their problems," Turkish Cypriot daily Kibris quoted Talat as saying.
Bildt said direct trade has been discussed within the EU at length, expressing the view that the regulation would be passed.
Nicosia is opposed to direct trade because it argues it would kill off any hope of reunifying the island since it would take away any incentive for Turkish Cypriots to negotiate a settlement.
Bildt also said the Cyprus issue is an EU problem to the chagrin of Talat who in an interview with Turkish news agency Anatolia that the bloc "has neither the skill nor the intention" to broker a settlement, but that it had "promised" to lift Turkish Cypriot ‘isolation’.
Playing up Turkish Cypriot post-referendum ‘victimhood’, Talat said the EU is aware that Nicosia is trying to use its membership against Turkish Cypriots and Turkey.
"The EU countries are getting more and more tired of this each day. There is no single official to say, ‘You are wrong, the Greek Cypriot side has good intentions.
"On the contrary, they say that they know, they see and they understand the real intentions of the Greek Cypriot side. And they ask us to be helpful. They tell us they cannot overcome obstacles put forth by the Greek Cypriot side. This is what we face."

From the Cyprus Weekly