Cyprus-Forum.com

[Kikapu]

Published: September 3 2008

Optimism at new bid for unity in Cyprus

By Kerin Hope in Nicosia


The Greek and Turkish Cypriot presidents will today start talks on reunifying Cyprus as a loose federal state with a small central administration to handle international relations.

Three decades of attempting to reunify the island have failed.

But Alexander Downer, the Australian former foreign minister who is the United Nations' special adviser to the talks, said he arrived in Cyprus "with a degree of optimism because I know the leadership is committed to a successful negotiation. But I have no illusions on how difficult this is."

Both sides accept the notion of a bi-zonal federation, but details of governance have still to be worked out.

Mehmet Ali Talat, the Turkish Cypriot leader, says a framework deal could be reached. However, Demetris Christofias, the Greek Cypriot president who faces a challenge from hardline nationalists opposed to a settlement, wants to avoid setting deadlines for agreement.

In 2004, the Greek Cypriot community overwhelmingly rejected a UN-sponsored peace plan at a referendum.

This prevented the impoverished Turkish Cypriot community from joining the European Union, although it backed the UN plan.

Polls show that about 70 per cent of Greek Cypriots approve of Mr Christofias's handling of the Cyprus issue since he won last February's presidential election on a pro-settlement platform.

"There's been a shift in opinion, with Greek Cypriots coming to realise that the costs of not getting a solution are higher than the benefits," said Philip Savvides, an Athens-based analyst.

The island's two largest political parties are both committed to pursuing a settlement.

Mr Christofias, the Cyprus communist party leader, has the official support of the rightwing Democratic Rally under Nikos Anastasiades, which, unlike the communists, has consistently backed a peace deal.

More than 60 per cent of Greek Cypriot voters are loyal to the two parties, making it likely a new peace plan would be approved at referendum - provided it offered improved solutions on issues of security, property and territory.

Four years of EU membership, together with entry last January to the eurozone, have reduced Greek Cypriot concerns about security.

However, working out a timetable for a withdrawal of Turkish troops in north Cyprus will be a critical test of Mr Christofias's negotiating skills.

The Turkish government is showing more enthusiasm for reunification than in the past. Visiting north Cyprus in July, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, praised Mr Talat's "active and constructive efforts" to restart direct peace talks.

A positive outcome would reinvigorate Turkey's faltering bid to join the EU.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

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"The Greek and Turkish Cypriot presidents will today start talks on reunifying Cyprus as a loose federal state with a small central administration to handle international relations."

I don't know where the reporter got the "loose federal state with a small central administration" as the basis for these negotiations.??

Perhaps she was thinking of the 2004 Annan Plan.!!!

[miltiades]

I think Kerin did a quick search on Google and came up with new revelations !!

[Kikapu]

The Associated PressPublished: September 4, 2008

Rival Cypriot leaders upbeat after new peace talks


NICOSIA, Cyprus: Cyprus' rival Greek and Turkish leaders started new peace talks Wednesday and said they hoped for a deal soon aimed at reuniting an island divided by war 34 years ago.

Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias met for two hours with Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat inside the U.N.-patrolled buffer zone that separates the two communities.

The leaders emerged from the talks to express confidence they will reach a settlement. They will meet again on Sept. 11, U.N. officials said.

"We will try our utmost to achieve (a settlement) as soon as possible. I could not guarantee, nor Talat could guarantee, that tomorrow or the day after tomorrow," Christofias said. "This is a common will, a common desire, and we shall make common efforts."

Talat said he hoped agreement could be reached by the end of the year. He denied that Turkey, a guarantor of the island's 1960 independence agreement, was poised to block any concessions in the negotiations.

"We are in favor of a solution and Ankara is supporting us," Talat said.

"That's why after four years of stalemate ... we are confident that we will succeed in concluding (a) comprehensive agreement," Talat said.

Cyprus — an island of fewer than a million inhabitants — has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded in response to a coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece.

Turkey keeps 35,000 troops in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north, and a small number of Greek troops are stationed in the south. The island was ruled by Britain until 1960. Turkey and Britain are also guarantors of the independence agreement.

Past efforts to reach a settlement have been scuttled by disagreement on issues including power-sharing, property rights for Greek Cypriot refugees and the nature of a future federation.

The last attempt collapsed in 2004 when Turkish Cypriots backed a U.N. settlement plan that Greek Cypriot voters rejected. Cyprus joined the European Union that year as a divided island with Turkish Cypriots denied the bloc's membership benefits.

But prospects of progress were raised by repeated commitments made by Christofias and Talat toward finding a solution. Talat on Wednesday insisted differences between the two sides were "not insurmountable."

Special United Nations envoy Alexander Downer said the two Cypriot leaders had to persuade their communities that a solution would benefit both sides.

"The negotiations which you begin today can and must have a successful outcome," said Downer, a former Australian foreign minister.

"You own this process and, as a result, your continuing leadership is a critical element to make it succeed."

Associated Press Television producer Theodora Tongas contributed to this report

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/09/ ... -Talks.php

[Kikapu]

The Associated PressPublished: September 8, 2008

Russia rules out recognizing northern Cyprus


NICOSIA, Cyprus: A Russian envoy is ruling out recognizing Cyprus' breakaway Turkish Cypriot north.

Senior foreign ministry official Alexander Alekseev says Cyprus' ethnic division "differs completely" from circumstances that prompted Russia to recognize the separatist Georgian republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Alekseev says Moscow's policy toward Cyprus hasn't changed. He says Moscow was "forced" to recognize the provinces in response to Georgian military aggression.

He made the remarks Monday after talks with Cyprus Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou.

Cyprus was split in 1974 when Turkey invaded in response to a coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/09/ ... Russia.php

[Kikapu]

The Associated PressPublished: September 10, 2008

Turkish Cypriots: Security guarantees needed

BRUSSELS, Belgium: Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat said Wednesday he accepts a reduction of Turkey's military contingent but that his side will still need security guarantees from Ankara as part of a deal to unite the divided island.

Talat said the troops could be pulled out to a level to be agreed in the talks with the Greek-Cypriot government in the south.

However, in a stance likely to rankle the Greek side, Talat said the Turkish Cypriots wanted Turkey to continue to guarantee their protection.

"Our position is to keep the guarantee and protection agreements applied," Talat said, apparently referring to a treaty between Britain, Greece and Turkey when Cyprus became independent from Britain in 1960.

He is due to open a second round of talks Thursday with Cyprus' President Dimitris Christofias in a new drive to reunify the island. Cyprus has been split since 1974, when Turkey invaded in response to a coup by officers seeking unity with Greece.

The future of the 35,000 Turkish troops still in the breakaway north remains one of the most contentious issues between the two sides.

"It is very clear that Turkish troops, other than the agreed number, will be withdrawn from the island," Talat said at a think-tank conference in Brussels, Belgium. "It will drop down to an agreed number ... all this will be negotiated."

He referred to agreements dating back to Cyprus' independence, which limited troop deployments to 950 from Turkey and 650 from Greece, although Turkish Cypriot officials later clarified that such a low number of Turkish troops was not currently on the table.

Despite differences, Talat was optimistic that an agreement can be found by the end of this year, or at the latest by June, when elections are due to the European Parliament. A reunification agreement would allow the Turkish Cypriots to enter the European Union, which Cyprus joined in 2004.

Talat said the EU would have to grant exceptions to its rules to take into account any agreement between the two Cypriots sides.

The reunification talks are expected to aim at a state made up of two entities with wide autonomy. The Turkish side would like to have safeguards to prevent the more numerous Greek Cypriots flooding into the north of the island, despite European rules that allow EU citizens to settle anywhere within the 27-nation bloc.

Talat held talks in Brussels with Olli Rehn, the EU official in charge of negotiations with prospective members.

The Turkish Cypriot leader said the biggest stumbling block to a deal with the Greek Cypriots was the question of property rights for people displaced by the conflict in 1974.

"It will somehow affect everybody, almost everybody, so that will be the most thorny issue," he said, adding that the two sides had agreed to first tackle issues relating to political power-sharing before turning to the property question.

In 2004, Turkish Cypriots backed an earlier settlement plan brokered by the United Nations. Greek Cypriot voters rejected it in a referendum. Optimism is growing that the good working relationship between Talat and Christofias could bring a breakthrough this time.

A number of Greek Cypriot members of the European Parliament wished Talat good luck in finding a solution to the talks. "We have to show mutual understanding of the position of both sides," said Panayiotis Demetriou, of the opposition Democratic Rally party.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/09/ ... Cyprus.php

"Talat said the EU would have to grant exceptions to its rules to take into account any agreement between the two Cypriots sides"

[Kikapu]

The Associated PressPublished: September 11, 2008

Cyprus rivals talk power-sharing at peace talks


NICOSIA, Cyprus: Cyprus' rival leaders began their first substantive talks aimed at reunifying the war-divided island, meeting on Thursday at an abandoned airport inside the U.N.-controlled buffer zone.

Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat began the latest talks on Sept. 3 — the first negotiations in four years on the divided Mediterranean island's future.

After the largely ceremonial first meeting last week, Thursday's talks were expected to focus on issues that derailed all past efforts to reach a peace deal.

On top of that list is the structure of a reunited federal Cyprus and how the Greek Cypriot majority would share power with the minority Turkish Cypriots.

Talat arrived for the meeting first, greeting waiting reporters in Turkish, Greek and English.

Christofias, who arrived shortly afterward, was asked which language the two leaders would use to negotiate.

"It's a unique language of peace that will keep us together," he said before heading into the meeting.

Cyprus was divided in 1974, when Turkey invaded in response to a coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece.

Security arrangements and the fate of property lost mainly by Greek Cypriots also remain key unresolved problems.

"The complex and challenging process of finding a negotiated settlement of the Cyprus problem has started in earnest," U.N. Special Representative to Cyprus Taye-Brook Zerihoun said Wednesday. "The road ahead will be potholed and sometimes perilous, but it does not look blocked."

The two leaders have promised to work toward a solution in an unprecedented display of joint commitment that has raised expectations for an end to the decades-long deadlock.

Christofias and Talat have agreed in principle on a future federal structure, but remain at odds on the power of central government.

Turkish Cypriots seek a loose federation, fearing dominance by Greek Cypriots who outnumber them by roughly four to one.

But Christofias wants a stronger central government and more limited regional powers to prevent Cyprus sliding back into partition.

Other contentious issues include whether Turkey will maintain a military presence on the island and whether Ankara will keep intervention rights granted when gained Cyprus independence from Britain in 1960.

"I fully recognize that the negotiating process will not be an easy matter," Christofias said Tuesday. "But I remain optimistic that through these negotiations, an agreed-upon solution will be possible."

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/09/ ... -Talks.php

[halil]

The Associated PressPublished: September 11, 2008

Cyprus rivals talk power-sharing at peace talks


NICOSIA, Cyprus: Cyprus' rival leaders began their first substantive talks aimed at reunifying the war-divided island, meeting on Thursday at an abandoned airport inside the U.N.-controlled buffer zone.

Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat began the latest talks on Sept. 3 — the first negotiations in four years on the divided Mediterranean island's future.

After the largely ceremonial first meeting last week, Thursday's talks were expected to focus on issues that derailed all past efforts to reach a peace deal.

On top of that list is the structure of a reunited federal Cyprus and how the Greek Cypriot majority would share power with the minority Turkish Cypriots.

Talat arrived for the meeting first, greeting waiting reporters in Turkish, Greek and English.

Christofias, who arrived shortly afterward, was asked which language the two leaders would use to negotiate.

"It's a unique language of peace that will keep us together," he said before heading into the meeting.

Cyprus was divided in 1974, when Turkey invaded in response to a coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece.

Security arrangements and the fate of property lost mainly by Greek Cypriots also remain key unresolved problems.

"The complex and challenging process of finding a negotiated settlement of the Cyprus problem has started in earnest," U.N. Special Representative to Cyprus Taye-Brook Zerihoun said Wednesday. "The road ahead will be potholed and sometimes perilous, but it does not look blocked."

The two leaders have promised to work toward a solution in an unprecedented display of joint commitment that has raised expectations for an end to the decades-long deadlock.

Christofias and Talat have agreed in principle on a future federal structure, but remain at odds on the power of central government.

Turkish Cypriots seek a loose federation, fearing dominance by Greek Cypriots who outnumber them by roughly four to one.

But Christofias wants a stronger central government and more limited regional powers to prevent Cyprus sliding back into partition.

Other contentious issues include whether Turkey will maintain a military presence on the island and whether Ankara will keep intervention rights granted when gained Cyprus independence from Britain in 1960.

"I fully recognize that the negotiating process will not be an easy matter," Christofias said Tuesday. "But I remain optimistic that through these negotiations, an agreed-upon solution will be possible."

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/09/ ... -Talks.php

Cyprus talks start in earnest
By Tony Barber in Brussels

Published: September 11 2008 18:33 | Last updated: September 11 2008 18:33

Negotiations on the main issues that have kept Cyprus divided since 1974 began in earnest on Thursday, with the Turkish Cypriot leader expressing hope that a provisional deal could be struck by the end of this year.

Mehmet Ali Talat told the Financial Times in an interview: “It’s a new situation, really new, so we’re hopeful this time, though we have a lot of difficulties. The atmosphere is good for the time being. Are we going to preserve it to the end? That’s another matter. I’m not sure.”

EDITOR’S CHOICE
Cypriot leaders in unification talks pledge - Sep-03Cypriots to launch reunification talks - Jul-26Cyprus leaders to start peace talks - Jul-02Cyprus lays to rest ghosts of the disappeared - Mar-26Cyprus leaders attempt to unite island - Mar-20Hopes rise ahead of Cyprus unity talks - Mar-11Mr Talat was speaking in Brussels on Wednesday before he returned to Nicosia for his second round of talks this month with Demetris Christofias, the Greek Cypriot president.

The European Union is keen to see a settlement because the island’s political disputes have disrupted EU policies, especially towards Turkey, in various ways since the internationally recognised, Greek Cypriot-led government of Cyprus joined the EU in 2004.

Mr Talat identified the most difficult issues in the talks as the resolution of property disputes, the redrawing of the map that will mark out the separate Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot parts of the island, and the nature of future power sharing.

He also contended that, because the Greek Cypriot government was already in the EU and eurozone and was recognised by the United Nations, it had fewer incentives than the Turkish Cypriots – whose state is recognised by no one except Turkey – to strike a deal.

“The EU can contribute by encouraging the Greek Cypriots to pursue a solution. The Greek Cypriots don’t have enough incentives to find a solution. They don’t need a solution, actually,” Mr Talat said.

Greek Cypriot voters torpedoed the last attempt to reach a settlement in 2004 when they rejected a power-sharing plan in a referendum. Turkish Cypriots approved the plan.

Mr Talat said his talks with Mr Christofias should not need to continue into 2009 because “the Cyprus problem is a very well-known problem” and they were not starting from scratch in tackling the issues.

“We may first identify where we converge and where we disagree, and we’ll collect these issues in two separate files,” Mr Talat said. “I have the idea that it won’t be possible to agree on everything by the end of the year, so we will need some kind of help, if not arbitration.”

Under this timetable, a comprehensive settlement could be signed by next June, he said – though it would still need approval by both communities in simultaneous referendums.

[Kikapu]

The Associated PressPublished: September 18, 2008

Cyprus president: Peace talks need common ground

NICOSIA, Cyprus: Cyprus' president warned on Thursday that talks to reunify the divided island could fail if the two sides don't find common ground on what a final deal should look like.

Dimitris Christofias said that he and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat should agree on the shape of a future federal government before they tackle the details of a peace deal.

The two met Thursday at an abandoned airport inside the U.N.-controlled buffer zone for the third time since the two sides relaunched peace talks earlier this month. Cyprus was divided in 1974 when Turkey invaded in response to a coup aimed uniting the island with Greece.

"I told (Talat) that he should appear more reasonable and to extend his hand, otherwise if we don't find a common language, a solution won't be found either at the end of this or any other year," Christofias said before the meeting.

Christofias, a Greek Cypriot, said the goal was to first reach a "common understanding" on a deal's core elements before moving on to the details. He said the new talks will take "some time" because they encompass numerous intricate legal and political issues.

Although there is no deadline for the talks' conclusion, Talat has said he wants a solution by the end of the year.

The two leaders have agreed not to disclose any details about the negotiations, but recent public statements underscoring competing visions of a settlement have rankled both sides.

Christofias said he would ignore the public statements and would focus instead on what the two were discussing in their closed-door negotiations.

"Mr. Talat says and accepts one thing inside and proclaims another outside. People should know this," Christofias said. "For me, what counts is what (Talat) commits to inside and I hope that he keeps to those commitments until the end."

Talat has criticized Christofias' remark that Greek Cypriots cannot make any more concessions beyond a 30-year-old agreement envisioning a future bi-communal, bi-zonal federal republic.

He said was "unacceptable" and warned that it would be impossible to make any headway in negotiations if Greek Cypriots were unwilling to be "open to any development".

Thursday's talks focused on governance and power-sharing issues, picking up where they left off a week ago. The highly contentious issue of property will be discussed next.

U.N. officials have said the leaders would move on to other issues if they do not reach an agreement on a particular matter. Points where the two sides remained deadlocked can be revisited in subsequent meetings.

Christofias said after the five-hour talks that he would next meet with Talat on Oct. 8 when they will continue negotiations on a formula for presidential power-sharing.

Hopes that an elusive peace deal might be within reach after decades of failure were rekindled after Christofias and Talat promised an unprecedented joint commitment to work toward a solution. They have agreed in principle on a federal structure for Cyprus but remain at odds on the power of central government.

Turkish Cypriots seek a loose federation, fearing dominance by Greek Cypriots who outnumber them by roughly four to one. But Christofias wants a stronger central government to prevent Cyprus from sliding back into partition.

Other contentious issues include whether Turkey will maintain a military presence on the island and whether it will keep intervention rights granted when Cyprus gained independence from Britain in 1960.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/09/ ... -Talks.php

[Kikapu]

The Associated PressPublished: September 23, 2008

Italy: Solve Cyprus before Turkey joins EU


ATHENS, Greece: Italy's president says the island of Cyprus must be reunited before Turkey is allowed to join the European Union.

President Giorgio Napolitano made the remarks while on a three-day official visit to Greece.

Rival Cypriot leaders are currently holding reunification talks on the Mediterranean island which has been divided since a Turkish invasion in 1974.

Napolitano holds a largely ceremonial post. He made the comments Tuesday after talks with Greek President Karolos Papoulias.

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[Nikitas]

The post may be ceremonial, but his statements reflect official national policy and are approved by the Italian government before they are made.