Cyprus-Forum.com

[halil]

Transcript of Remarks by Special Adviser of the Secretary-General Alexander Downer Following 11 November Meeting

Let me just say, as is tradition now, a couple of words about the meeting that has just taken place between the two leaders.

It began with the now habitual tete-a-tete meeting, the private meeting between the two leaders. That lasted for around half an hour and then there was a discussion for a couple of hours about the issue of the legislature.

The representatives will have a further discussion on Friday morning on the question of the legislature in order to deal with some of the points of divergence between the two leaders, and of course the points of convergence don’t need any further elaboration.
Thanks very much. If you have any questions I guess I can answer them or try to answer them.

Question: Mr. Downer, is there any progress at all on this governance issue?

Answer: Well, yes, they are making steady progress. I think I have made the point on a number of occasions before that this is an enormously important negotiation for the people of Cyprus and inevitably its going to take time. Inevitably the negotiations are going to be difficult negotiations, but they are making progress.

Question: How do you define progress?

Answer: Well there are points of convergence in the discussions and as they reach points of convergence they area able to move on and there are obviously points of divergence as well and it’s the points of divergence that constitute the debate.

Question: Which is more, the points of divergence or the points of convergence?

Answer: Oh, well, you will have to add it up

Question: It seems like eight or seven meetings on one issue.

Answer: Not on one issue, that’s not right. I mean, it’s of course of one chapter --governance and power sharing. As you can imagine, for any country governance and power sharing is an enormously important issue. This is a central issue, so it’s hardly surprising that it takes a while. I think it’s very important to be understanding and tolerant of that. Frankly an expectation that you can just suddenly solve all these problems overnight is unrealistic. But nevertheless there are a number of areas of convergence in this chapter there are if you like a whole series of sub-headings which the leaders of progressing through and they are making good progress on those but there are points of divergence and some of those points of divergence will be discussed by the representatives on Friday in relation to the legislature. But there have been discussions on the competencies of the federal government, there have been discussions on the executive, the role of the executive, how the executive is elected. So they are working through difficult, very important issues.

Question: When that basket of divergences fills up what happens next? Are you going to try to help them out at all?

Answer: Well I think as I have often said the role of the United Nations here is not only to host the meetings, which we are clearly doing, which is what I am doing standing right here, but also to help as best we can at the request of the leaders. So, I have a fairly constant dialogue with the leaders, with the representatives, with other officials during the periods when I am here in Cyprus. I am here, of course, through this week and certainly through part of next week, and that process will continue. But, you know, our job is to host these meetings and to help in any way we usefully can and not to impose ourselves in an unhelpful and uncalled for way. So that is a balance I think we have struck quite successfully.

Question: Mr. Downer, will this issue have to be resolved and completely agreed before they move on to the next issue or will they leave some things unresolved and move onto property?

Answer: Well we will have to wait and see what they will discuss at the next meeting. I will be saying more about that after the meeting has taken place, and that’s very soon, you won’t have to wait very long. The next meeting is going to be on Thursday morning at around 10 o’clock, and I will have something to say about that meeting when it is complete.



UNFICYP

[Oracle]

The next meeting is going to be on Thursday morning at around 10 o’clock, and I will have something to say about that meeting when it is complete.

More waffle?

I think his brain has diverged from his mouth

[tessintrnc]

The next meeting is going to be on Thursday morning at around 10 o’clock, and I will have something to say about that meeting when it is complete.

More waffle?

I think his brain has diverged from his mouth

I think these posts are useful as the meetings don't seem to be reported very well in the English language papers. So:

Çok teşekkürler Halil!!!!

[halil]

The next meeting is going to be on Thursday morning at around 10 o’clock, and I will have something to say about that meeting when it is complete.

More waffle?

I think his brain has diverged from his mouth

I think these posts are useful as the meetings don't seem to be reported very well in the English language papers. So:

Çok teşekkürler Halil!!!!

Bende teşekür ederm Tess.

BAN `INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY SHOULD ENCOURAGE NEGOTIATIONS`

The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moom has said that the international community should encourage the negotiations process in Cyprus.
Responding to a reporter’s comments that the optimism on Cyprus was scaling down and that even some leaders were speaking about an impasse, he said `unnecessary skepticism may not be desirable for the
ongoing process`.
He said that the international community should always encourage the very fragile negotiation process, reminding that his Special Envoy Alexander Downer would engage in dialogue with the two leaders in Cyprus.
`The negotiation process has been, I think, encouraging`, he said, adding that the two leaders in Cyprus have demonstrated very strong political will to resolve the four-decade-long issues through dialogue, through a mutually acceptable formula.

The UN Secretary General’s Special Adviser for Cyprus Alexander Downer was received by Talat and Dimitris Christofias this morning.
Downer also visited TC's main opposition National Unity Party Tahsin Ertugruloglu.