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Tuesday, October 31 2006 @ 07:35 AM Central Standard Time
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The administration of Southern Cyprus is insisting on not beginning talks with the Turkish side despite the agreement reached, with great effort, last summer with United Nations Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari.
The Greek side opposed U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan’s special envoy for Cyprus Michael Moller’s ideas to begin reconciliation talks. Greek Cyprus, eager to have the issue discussed on European Union territory to take advantage of on the upcoming Nov. 8 progress report on Turkey, will not commence the talks agreed to by both sides on July 8 this year.
The United Nations recommended that the committees formed to act as a bridge between the two parties start working immediately and that Tassos Papadopoulos, president of Greek Cyprus, and Mehmet Ali Talat, president of Turkish Cyprus, come together at once.
The Turkish side stated that it was ready to support the U.N.’s approach. However, the Greek side once again came out against the U.N.’s proposal. The proposal envisaged the coming together of Talat and Papadopoulos to begin talks again in a week or two.
Had the U.N. proposal been accepted, the two leaders were going to have a meeting in February 2007 with a special agenda to take control of the committee. Another part of the unaccepted plan would have been to call on the newly elected Secretary General of the U.N. Ban Ki-Moon to, “begin the reconciliation process.”
Experts involved note that the latest proposal was declined by the Greek side because they thought it was not in support of a solution within the framework of the U.N.
The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) has been approaching all the proposals made by the U.N. in a most positive manner and the administration stated a few times that they were ready to begin the works of the committee. The works of the technical committee were well-received by Ankara, who feels it could contribute to, “a comprehensive solution to the problem.”
U.N. Under-Secretary for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari sent President M. Ali Talat a letter on the issue at the end of last March which contained a list of the technical committee that got the consent of both parties in Cyprus.
Both sides were set to begin the committee’s work on issues such as health, water, environment, waste management, money laundering, crime prevention, traffic security and humanitarian cooperation. The suggestion for committee work had initially been introduced by Ankara and Northern Cyprus and was bolstered by them throughout. |
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