insan wrote:YFred wrote:insan wrote:bill cobbett wrote:paliometoxo wrote:NICOSIA - Cyprus peace talks scheduled to resume on Sept 3 were abruptly postponed on Wednesday after a Greek Cypriot pilgrimage to the Turkish-occupied north was cancelled.
Negotiations between President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat broke off in August, but were scheduled to resume on Thursday morning.
Diplomats hoped the process could move up a gear to heal a conflict harming Turkey's prospects of joining the European Union, and driving a seemingly intractable wedge between Cyprus's Greeks and Turks for more than three decades.
"I met with (UN envoy Alexander) Downer this morning. I expressed the view that the Turkish behaviour inevitably casts a shadow over the scheduled meeting tomorrow... and which under the circumstances is better to be postponed," said George Iacovou, a senior aide to President Demetris Christofias.
A senior aide to Talat said they were checking the report. "We will try to get this information confirmed. As of now we did not have any official request to postpone tomorrow's meeting," aide Ozdil Nami told Reuters.
Earlier, about 550 Greek Cypriot pilgrims scheduled to cross into northern Cyprus turned back on Wednesday, citing delays by Turkish Cypriot authorities in permitting people from crossing over in a bus convoy.
(Reuters)
This whole pilgrimage saga reflects very badly on Turkey and the Illegal Muppet Regime by an obviously deliberate, orchestrated and regretfully successful attempt to create bad feeling the day before the resumption of Settlement Talks.
Ask Michalides the priest. He has a lot to tell u abt Iacovu.
Insan, give us the background.
Michalides critisized Iacovu that he misinformed them abt the time, number of busses with passengers and process of passing the checkpoints.
Perhaps there is a different time zone between North and South. Whatever will Turkey do next.