Cyprus-Forum.com

[halil]

According to reports in the Turkish Cypriot press, the former Turkish Cypriot president Mehmet Ali Talat has said that the new Turkish Cypriot President Dervis Eroglu is not sincere when he talks about reaching a solution to the Cyprus problem by the end of the year.

In an interview to Cihan news agency, Mr Talat noted that finding a solution in Cyprus by the end of the year is possible, but one should have the necessary vision for this and work with this aim.


Mr Talat said the fact that President Eroglu started the negotiations from the property issue was a “mistake” as it was the “the thorniest issue on which absolutely no work has been done”. He alleged that doing so only helped the Greek Cypriots as it was tantamount to leading the negotiations to a “point close to a deadlock”. Eroglu should not have accepted this proposal of the Greek Cypriots. “That is, they want to delay us anyway. In a sense, we are giving them a trump card by opening for debate a delaying chapter. I do not want to say that this was a vital mistake, but the correct thing to do was to continue with the governance and power sharing, because there is a lot of progress in this chapter. If this chapter was advanced and a broader agreement was reached, speeder progress could have been achieved on the other chapters. Eroglu, however, preferred the property thinking ‘let us postpone these issues’, because he is too sensitive especially for the issue of single sovereignty”.

Talat also accused the Greek Cypriots of not want an early solution, because they think that as long as they corner Turkey in its accession process into the EU they will acquire more advantages.

[BirKibrisli]

Talat is simply playing politics I think Halil...I agree with Nikitas that the property issue is the hardest to solve,so why leave it till last??? They might as well see if they can agree on this thorny issue,which has many implications (settler numbers,zone percentages for the two states,the number of refugees who can return etc) before wasting any more time on side issues....

But talking about a solution by the end of this year is a bit too ambitious,imho....