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Cyprus Mail: Press Review in English, 99-08-24

Cyprus Mail: Press Review in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cynews.com/>


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Tuesday, August 24, 1999

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/ US Ambassador has 'specific ideas'

/

SPECULATION about the Cyprus peace efforts returned to the front pages with a vengeance yesterday. Four papers led with Cyprus problem stories.

Alithia

reported that the new US ambassador, Donald Butler, who was to present his credentials to President Clerides yesterday, had brought with him "specific ideas for the resumption of the talks and a Cyprus settlement".

According to diplomatic sources, Butler is expected to play an instrumental role in the peace efforts, his main objective being the lifting of obstacle so that the intercommunal talks could resume in October. This despite the messages from the Turkish side claiming that the prospects of changing the status quo were extremely limited.

Politis

led with excerpts from a report by former State Department Co-ordinator for Cyprus James Wilkinson, who argued that the international community would be making a big mistake if it promoted a settlement based on the current ethnic division. Wilkinson believed that the US and EU had a role to play in the peace efforts, but also said that "in the last three or four years, Washington’s claims about taking on a leading role in Cyprus produced more rhetoric than results".

Prospects for a settlement remained as limited as back in 1974 and expectations for an improvement of the situation were minimal. His advice, according to Politis, was that talks should resume, based on the Boutros-Ghali set of ideas, and that the two sides should invest funds in confidence-building measures.

To Tharros, quoting an Athens paper, said that Turkey had informed Greece during secret talks in Brussels that it would make no concessions in Cyprus. In contrast, with regard to the disputes over the Aegean Sea, Turkey was prepared to make compromises that would completely satisfy Greece.

The secret talks, between the permanent representatives of the two countries at the EU, were part of the efforts to improve Greece-Turkey relations. In these talks Turkey maintained that it would not want to enter the EU before it could ensure that its economy would survive the increased competition.

Phileleftheros

claimed that the situation caused by the earthquakes in Turkey would have an adverse effect on the Cyprus peace initiative. This was a view shared by the foreign ministries of Greece and Cyprus, which believe that Ankara would avoid participation in the procedures on the pretext that it has serious domestic issues to deal with.

A diplomatic source insisted that there was no way to persuade Turkey to discuss anything it did not want to discuss. In order to keep the initiative alive, Britain and the US would turn to the Greek Cypriot side and ask it to take a few steps that might induce Turkey to adopt a more constructive role.

Simerini

predicted that President Clerides would reshuffle his cabinet by mid- September at the very latest. This time "Clerides is determined not to accept blindly the recommendations of his associates and he would have the final say regarding who would be a minister".

Clerides had accepted the suggestion of United Democrats leader George Vassiliou to appoint the party’s deputy leader, Michalis Papapetrou as government spokesman, said the paper. The other "certainty" was former Edek deputy Efstathios Efstathiou for the position of Defence Minister.

Haravghi

reported that hopes of finding any quake survivors in Turkey had diminished drastically and efforts would concentrate on re-housing the 200,000 who have been left homeless. Rescue teams had so far pulled out 33,000 injured and 12,000 dead from the ruins.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1999

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