Cyprus PIO: News Update in English, 97-08-15

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From: The Republic of Cyprus Press and Information Office Server at <http://www.pio.gov.cy/>

News Update

Friday, 15/08/97

CONTENTS

• [01] Talks at Montreux end in failure

[01] Talks at Montreux end in failure

Speaking at a press conference at the end of five days of talks President Clerides said that Denktash suddenly discovered that he could not negotiate unless Cyprus either withdrew its application or the EU decided not to proceed with the application.

Diego Cordovez, the U.N. envoy presiding at the talks, said that talks between the President Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader would continue and added: "We are back at where we started but not entirely."

In his opening statement President Clerides said:

"I think in order to appreciate correctly what has been done during these five or six days we were here, I will have to remind you that the position was quite clear when we came here i.e. is that we were here for the purpose of negotiating to find an agreed solution of the Cyprus problem based on an independent federal republic, bi-communal and bi-zonal and the negotiation was to be carried out between two politically equal communities. Unfortunately we did not negotiate.

Because some years ago we submitted an application for Cyprus to join the European Union -and that fact was known to Mr Denktash-and because the EU decided that negotiations with Cyprus would commence six months after the intergovernmental conference, Mr Denktash discovered now that he could not negotiate unless either we withdrew our application or the EU decided not to proceed with it. And he threatens that if the EU decides to go on, he will not negotiate at all after that decision, which is due to be taken some time in December.

Beyond that however, Mr Cordovez prepared two documents: a joint statement which we were to make and an annex to the joint statement which was dealing with some substantial issues. Mr Denktash first challenged the right of the UN to submit the documents, secondly he objected to those documents on two grounds: The first I have already mentioned that is he was not going to negotiate while the application for joining the EU was pending, and secondly he did not find the content of those documents satisfactory.

Despite the fact that I had a large number of observations on those documents, I stated that in order that we should make some progress, I was prepared to accept both documents, but if Mr Denktash was going to make revisions, or amendments, or adjustments, I reserved my right also to do the same.

At the end of the week we are exactly where we were when we came here. This is my statement and I am ready to answer questions."

From the Republic of Cyprus Press and Information Office (PIO) Server at http://www.pio.gov.cy/

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