Christofias-Talat agreement paves way for new Cyprus talks

25/03/2008

Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot officials indicated on Monday that they are making good progress in implementing elements of an agreement their leaders reached last week.

(Cyprus Mail, Zaman - 25/03/08; UN News Centre, AP, AFP, The Washington Times, CNA, New Europe, Cyprus Mail, Zaman, The New Anatolian, Hurriyet - 24/03/08; Reuters, AFP, FT, The New York Times - 22/03/08; AP, DPA, BBC, VOA, Cyprus Press and Information Office - 21/03/08)

Cypriot President Demetris Christofias (left) held talks with Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat. [Getty Images]

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday (March 24th) congratulated Cyprus President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat on the agreement they reached last week to resume re-unification talks within three months.

The deal was reached Friday during the two leaders' first face-to-face talks since Christofias won the February 24th presidential runoff.

During the talks, Christofias and Talat decided that a number of working groups and technical committees would be established "in the most expeditious way possible" to work out the details of a re-unification agreement. The two leaders are due to meet again after three months to review the progress achieved by those panels, and "using their results, to start full-fledged negotiations" under Ban's auspices, UN Special Representative in Cyprus Michael Moller said on Friday.

Christofias and Talat's advisers, George Iacovou and Ozdil Nami, who have been tasked with establishing the panels, met on Monday at the UN envoy's residence to begin laying the groundwork for future negotiations.

"We discussed the issues the committees will deal with," Iacovou said afterwards. Noting the "great progress" made during the talks, he suggested that an agreement on the panels' titles could be reached as early as Wednesday. "It is not feasible to determine the agendas of those 12 or 14 working groups and technical committees in one meeting. But, I hope that by the end of the week we will get there."

Iacovou and Nami are expected to meet almost every day this week in a bid to get the working groups and technical committees in place ahead of the arrival Sunday of a UN assessment team, led by Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe.

The two sides are also focusing on another element of Friday's agreement between Christofias and Talat, concerning the re-opening of a key crossing point on Ledra Street, the main commercial road in Nicosia. It is a major symbol of the island's 34-year long division.

The Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot mayors of Europe's last divided capital, Eleni Mavrou and Jemal Metin Bulutoglulari, met on Monday to discuss preparations for opening the crossing, which has been closed since 1963. Both said they were ready to take the necessary steps once they get the green light from the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), which has to first clear the area of any unexploded mines.

"We are waiting for the UN to give us the go ahead and we will decide the same day," Bulutoglulari said. "We need five days together to finish the area for the construction and the safety work and, hopefully, once we get the go ahead, we will start together helping each other and we will finish it at the beginning of the month (of April). But we do not know the date," he added.