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| Europe |
| Bush Seeks to Cultivate New Cyprus Talks |
| 2003-06-12 |
| The Bush administration has promised to help Cyprus try to reopen negotiations on the basis of a U.N. plan to unite the Turkish-occupied north with the Greek Cypriot-controlled south. While the Cyprus government has reservations about several provisions of the plan sponsored by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, it wants talks that broke down in April revived. The foreign minister, George Iacovu, who held talks in Washington on Wednesday with Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, and congressional leaders, said he had asked the administration ``to show a high level of interest in putting the negotiations back on the table.'' Diplospeak for "the Turks want too much! Help us talk them down!" The talks broke down when Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash rejected the Annan plan. But Iacovu said Turkey makes the decisions and should be pressured to permit negotiations to resume. ``I was satisfied with the responses I have received,'' Iacovu told reporters Thursday over breakfast in his hotel. He said Powell, who met with Annan Wednesday at the State Department, told him he would take up Cyprus with Annan again when they meet in Jordan later in the month on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. "Kofi, I think we can get the Palestinian issue settled before lunch. How 'bout tackling Cyprus after the photo op?" Annan, in a report after the breakdown, said Denktash ``bears prime responsibility'' for the collapse of the negotiations with Greek Cypriots. He praised the Greek Cypriot contribution to the talks. Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday extended a peacekeeping mission in Cyprus for six months and added 34 police to deal with the increasing travel between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot sides of the divided island. Turkey invaded the island in 1974 after a coup by supporters of a union of Cyprus with Greece and set up a separate state in the north. It is recognized only by Turkey. So the UN wants to reward the coup-plotters and punish the Turks. Typical. Iacovu said Turkish Cypriots were emigrating, and settlers brought in from Turkey now outnumber remaining Turkish Cypriots. He said there were 110,000 Turkish settlers and about 75,000 remaining Turkish Cypriots with incomes about one-fourth those of Greek Cypriots. Turkey maintains a force of 35,000 to 40,000 troops in the north. Annan's plan envisioned the reunification of Cyprus as a single state with Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot sections linked through a weak central government. Everything Kofi envisions is weak. The secretary-general had been trying to get Greek and Turkish Cypriots to agree to the plan so that a united Cyprus could sign a treaty to join the European Union next May. Here's a radical idea: leave the two sides alone and let them work it out. If they can't, admit both to the EU. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #3 Thanks,Hod.Hope Aris has us straightened out. |
| Posted by: raptor 2003-06-12 16:00:09 |
| #2 Hi Aris! Thought I'd probably find you here. Sorry to say you get no argument from me on this topic, as I support the ROC position. By the by, as you may have gathered by now, I am NOT a nom-de-guerre for Raptor. |
| Posted by: Hodadenon 2003-06-12 15:21:59 |
| #1 "So the UN wants to reward the coup-plotters and punish the Turks." Actually, the coup plotters rotted away in jail for the rest of their lives. It'd be difficult to reward them. "If they can't, admit both to the EU." One half's already admitted - but EU recognizes only the Republic of Cyprus as the legitimate government for the entire island, so reunification is the only possibility for the other half to join. Anything else would be rejected by the Republic of Cyprus and Greece both... |
| Posted by: Aris Katsaris 2003-06-12 12:44:11 |