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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
