Papadopoulos Reaffirms Commitment to UN-Brokered Cyprus Reunification Talks

19/09/2005

Greek Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos said Sunday that any new talks to reunify Cyprus should be held under the UN's auspices. He suggested that Secretary General Kofi Annan could move to revive the negotiations in the near future.

(Australian Associated Press - 19/09/05; AP, Reuters, VOA, Cyprus News Agency, Turkish Press - 18/09/05)

Greek Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos said Sunday (18 September) that any new talks to reunify Cyprus should be held under the aegis of the UN. "We remain committed to holding negotiations under the umbrella of the UN, and to working for the creation of those conditions that will render fruitful negotiations feasible," Papadopoulos said in an address to the UN General Assembly in New York.

A renewal of the negotiations, Papadopoulos said, requires both "thorough preparation and an honest assessment that the prospect of success is at least credible", as well as confirmation that "Turkey has reconciled itself with the fact that achieving a settlement is synonymous with the concept of a single, reunified state."

Speaking to reporters, the Greek Cypriot leader suggested that UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, with whom he met Friday, could move to revive the peace talks "in the near future". But he denied media speculations that a settlement of the Cyprus issue should be reached before the start of Turkey's EU accession talks, scheduled for 3 October.

When the negotiations are renewed, "the pace and time schedule of the talks should be dictated purely on the progress of the talks, and the time needed for completing the substance," Papadopoulos said. It is "not in the interest of anybody that we should have another failed effort," he stressed.

The latest effort to end the Mediterranean island's more than 31-year division collapsed in April 2004, when the Greek Cypriots overwhelmingly rejected a UN blueprint for a settlement, known as the Annan Plan. The plan envisioned the unification of the island's Greek Cypriot south and Turkish Cypriot north into a federation of two politically equal constituent states tied by a loose central government. Although the majority of the Turkish Cypriots approved the proposed settlement, only the internationally recognised Greek Cypriot south joined the EU on 1 May 2004.

The Greek Cypriots have cited the lack of guarantees that they will get their homes and property taken by the Turkish Cypriot side back as the main reason for their refusal to support the deal. They also object to the continued Turkish military presence on the island.