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TALAT SAYS TALKS ON PROPERTY ISSUE WILL BE SHORTER THAN PREVIOUS ISSUE

President Mehmet Ali Talat has said that talks on the property issue, scheduled to begin next week, unlike the previous issue of governance and power sharing will not last for three months.
Talat said that he and Christofias will only be determining the general principles, leaving the rest to be worked out by technical experts.

The President briefed members of the Cyprus Turkish Chamber of Architects and Civil Engineers on the latest staged reached in the Cyprus negotiations process.

The President said that they had experienced great difficulties with both the former Greek Cypriot leader Tassos Papadopoulos as well as his successor Demetris Christofias, when he was first elected.

“Christofias’s stance throughout his election campaign as well as his government’s coalition partner did not allow the direct negotiations to be conducted on the basis of the Annan Plan, on which we had previously agreed upon” he added.

Reiterating that it was not easy to negotiate without a written document as a basis, Talat said that they had started from scratch, taking up each issue from the start which resulted in the loss of time.

Pointing out that there were currently no deadlocks experienced in the negotiations, Talat said that this meant that the talks were continuing and were progressing on the right track.

Noting that they completed the first chapter of the negotiations on governance and power sharing last week, President Talat expressed his view that this was the most important issue discussed.

“If you ask me this was the most important issue in the negotiations because it was the cause of the Cyprus Problem from the very beginning. It was the reason that triggered the conflict. The Cyprus Problem was not caused by property or guarantees” he added.

Talat also pointed out that there were no serious disagreements with the Greek Cypriot Side, for the exception of its proposals on the executive which were in contradiction with UN principles.

Explaining that the talks on the remaining issues will move faster, the President also provided detailed information about the procedure to be followed in the future.

Stating that their special representatives will be meeting regularly to put down existing differences or convergences on paper, Talat said that everything will be much clearer once the talks move onto the give and take phase.

“The second stage of the negotiations will be a give and take process.
Once this is completed there will be only a few points of disagreement remaining. It is at that point in the process that other elements, such as the international community, will need to get involved. That is why we must be realistic. The international community or the UN needs to be more active” he said, adding that they will propose and demand for the UN to take on a mediatory role.

Talat also said that reaching agreement on all issues was highly unlikely in the absence of a more active UN role.


SENIOR AIDES PUT FINAL TOUCHES ON THE ISSUE OF GOVERANCE AND POWER SHARING

The senior aides of the two leaders, Ozdil Nami and Yorgo Yakovu met today to put on the final touches to the issue of governance and power sharing which was completed last week.

The meeting focused on putting final touches to the issue of governance and power sharing as well as to starting preliminary discussions on the issue of property which the two leaders will start discussing next.

The two leaders will be meeting next week, on Wednesday, the 28th, to resume negotiations.