Tassos and Talat to finally get together
Meeting hopes
By Andreas Hadjipapas
TASSOS Papadopoulos and Mehmet Ali Talat will meet on Wednesday as scheduled under UN auspices amidst hopes there will be some positive outcome allowing resumption of the stalled peace process for a Cyprus settlement.
It will be the first encounter between the two leaders for more than a year and they are expected to focus their talks on ways of implementing the July 8 agreement that was brokered with the help of Ibrahim Gambari, then UN Under-Secretary-General.
It envisaged the creation of technical committees and groups of experts to address matters affecting the everyday life of the people but also substantive political issues, with the aim of preparing the ground for fully-fledged negotiations.
The lack of progress so far in setting up the committees prevented earlier meetings between the two leaders, even though their principal aides, Tassos Tzionis and Rasit Pertev, continued to hold low-level discussions mainly on the proposed agenda.
‘Positive’
Government Spokesman Vassilis Palmas said the Greek Cypriot side would be attending the talks "with good will and a positive approach in an effort to create the necessary conditions for progress".
He said correspondence between Talat and Papadopoulos indicated that both community leaders wanted to discuss ways of giving a push to the "Gambari process" for the implementation of the July 8 accord.
But both leaders would also be free to raise any other issue they considered relevant, he added.
The Spokesman reaffirmed the Greek Cypriot side’s decision not to engage in polemics or "reply to provocations" or comments from the other side, “in order to contribute to a positive climate" that would be conducive to fruitful talks.
In new statements this week, the Turkish Cypriot leader again expressed fears that the island was already heading towards partition and that it would be hard to stop this development.
In an interview published in yesterday’s Turksh Cypriot press, Talat said things did not look good. "We are heading towards partition, even though this is not my hope or my aim," he added.
He said if there was no solution soon, "rapprochement between the two communities will be very difficult, and nothing can be done about it."
He said Wednesday’s meeting would be successful only if it opened the way for fully-fledged negotiations for a comprehensive settlement.
Talat has been meeting other Turkish Cypriot politicians to consult them on his forthcoming meeting/.
American diplomats have repeated US support for the July 8 agreement and expressed the hope the September 5 encounter will lead to progress towards its implementation.
Akel chief Demetris Christofias, who is also a presidential candidate, has said he plans to see Talat as well, after Wednesday’s meeting.
The other presidential hopeful, Ioannis Kasoulides, said the July 8 process should be "upgraded" through "frequent meetings between the two leaders to resolve any deadlocks."
He also suggested that the process should focus on a "limited number of substantive issues" and be speeded up, so that actual negotiations for a settlement could commence.