The US considers the status quo in Cyprus "unacceptable" and believes that a Cyprus settlement must be based on UN resolutions that provide for a bicommunal, bizonal federal state.
The US position was outlined here yesterday by US President senior adviser George Stephanopoulos during a press conference at the end of his official contacts with the Greek and Turkish Cypriot sides.
"I believe everyone recognizes that the status quo is not acceptable and that we must continue to work for a solution," he told a packed press room. "We have no intention of giving up on solving the problem of Cyprus," he added.
Replying to questions, he said the US was committed to UN resolutions "for a bizonal, bicommunal federation which we believe is the best solution to the problem in Cyprus."
Describing his meetings here as "very interesting and constructive," the US envoy repeated his call that peace must come from the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities. He also warned that achieving progress would not be an easy task and said he discussed with all sides concerned "the obstacles to a solution."
Asked if a breakthrough could be achieved that would lead to a meeting between President Glafcos Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, Mr. Stephanopoulos said "a meting alone is not the answer. We have to make sure there is substantive ground for the meeting and that a meeting is productive."
He pointed out that the US is dedicated to ensuring that any meeting is "productive and substantive and can lead to progress." He sent a stern warning to all parties involved in the Cyprus question that "progress is not going to be easy and is not going to come overnight."
Mr. Stephanopoulos called on both sides to "sit down and reach an agreement and accommodation," but refrained from identifying any compromises the Greek and Turkish Cypriot sides could make towards this goal.
The US envoy stressed that Greece and Turkey are crucial to a settlement in Cyprus but the voice of the Turkish Cypriots must also be heard. "Greece and Turkey are essential to the stability of the eastern Mediterranean, both are essential to the stability and eventual peace in the Balkans. We will continue to do whatever we can to see a lessening of tension between our two NATO allies. At the same time, both will influence any eventual solution in Cyprus," Mr. Stephanopoulos said.
The US, he added, considered the maintenance of "strong relations with all her NATO allies and with Cyprus as especially important."
Referring to his talks in Ankara, the presidential advisor said he did not see any inconsistencies between the views expressed by the Turkish military and those of Turkish Premier Tansu Ciller. Comparing the Cyprus problem with other issues, Mr. Stephanopoulos said peace in Cyprus, like in the Middle East and in Northern Ireland, can only be made if "the parties themselves are resolved to make peace happen."
Asked specifically if there can be a solution without exerting pressure on Turkey to abandon its insistence on a settlement based on ethnic cleansing, Mr. Stephanopoulos acknowledged there had been "a lot of violence over a long period of time in Cyprus" but added, "we do care about human rights, we will continue to work for a solution with respect to the human rights on both sides."
Stressing the need to make headway, Mr. Stephanopoulos noted his government's support for "the efforts to account for the missing persons in Cyprus and to ensure that the Greek Cypriots in the Karpass region are respected." He was referring to the 1,619 persons, including five US citizens, listed as missing by the Red Cross since the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus and some 500 Greek Cypriots and Maronites still living in the northern part of the island, occupied by Turkish troops since the invasion.
Speaking earlier, after a 45-minute meeting with President Glafcos Clerides, Mr. Stephanopoulos said "I wanted to reiterate in a very strong fashion President Clinton's personal commitment to see a solution to the Cyprus problem and I was happy to convey that to the President personally as well."
The US advisor also said he heard "a lot of good and interesting ideas" from President Clerides and revealed that Mr. Clerides "put forward his ideas on a demilitarization proposal which we will be discussing more in the future."
Asked to confirm press reports that Mr. Clerides would visit Washington in the autumn, Mr. Stephanopoulos said the initiative for a proposed Clinton-Clerides meeting came from US ambassador to Cyprus Richard Boucher. "I will be conveying that request, see if it can be arranged, because of President Clinton's busy schedule," he remarked.
Asked about a possible Clinton-Clerides meeting, government spokesman Yiannakis Cassoulides said "our side has not requested a meeting with the US President. If a meeting is arranged, the President will consider it an honor and will gladly visit the White House. This is a US embassy initiative."
Mr. Stephanopoulos also met yesterday with Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash. Mr. Stephanopoulos, who arrived Monday, will stay for a few more days in Cyprus on a private visit.
President Kostis Stephanopoulos will visit islands in the eastern Aegean on Friday, starting from Ikaria, Samos and Fournoi. On Saturday, he will travel to Hios, Oinouses and Psara.
President Stephanopoulos will arrive by helicopter at Kratigou airport in Mytilini on Sunday morning and then visit the headquarters of the 98th ADTE. At 11am he will receive local authorities. He will also be proclaimed an honorary citizen of Lesvos at an event to be held at the Ministry of the Aegean.
According to the schedule, he will visit the border checkpoint at Provoskida afterwards. President Stephanopoulos will leave for Lemnos and Ayios Efstratios on Monday morning.
Albanian Foreign Minister Alfred Serreqi said yesterday that his country could play the middleman between Athens and Skopje in its dispute, adding that Tirana's relations with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia were not directed against any other country.
Mr. Serreqi was in Skopje on a three-day visit. He stressed that his talks in the FYROM capital were happening at a "very critical time for the Balkans" and underlined the rejection of the FYROM government of "Belgrade's provocation of settling Serbian refugees in Kosovo with the aim of changing the demographic composition."
The joint Greek-Albanian committee on transport began a two-day meeting yesterday in the northern Greek town of Ioannina to discuss a number of transport-related issues.
The focus of yesterday's session was on the bilateral agreements to be signed concerning road and rail transport, coach connections and the transport of goods. Also raised was the issue of linking the railway networks of the two countries.
Both sides agreed that there were good prospects for future development in the sectors of transport and communications. A bilateral transport protocol is scheduled to be signed at noon today.
US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke has canceled his scheduled visit to Greece today due to the fact that he has had to return to the US following the deaths of the three American diplomats in Bosnia on Saturday, government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos said yesterday.
The spokesman, who made the statement in reply to reporters' questions, added that Mr. Holbrooke would visit Athens when he resumes his mission in the region.
Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou received US Ambassador to Athens Thomas Niles at his residence in Ekali yesterday afternoon.
Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias briefed Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou on Greek initiatives to find a solution to the Yugoslav crisis on Monday night.
Welfare Under-secretary Manolis Skoulakis denied press reports yesterday that earthquake victims were not receiving the government's promised 200,000 drachmas.
Mr. Skoulakis said in an announcement welfare departments in quake-affected prefectures (Kozani, Grevena, Achaia and Fokida) have received more than 3.5 billion drachmas. He added that he has addressed an urgent circular to prefects, defining criteria for beneficiaries and giving instructions for the creation of three-member committees to consider who are entitled to such benefits.
The announcement said that to date Grevena prefecture had received 1.3 billion drachmas, Kozani 1.02 billion, Achaia 0.98 billion and Fokida 0.12 billion drachmas.
Excavations at the villa of Herod Atticus at Loukou in the Peloponnese have unearthed a further three groups of sculptures. Archaeologist Theodore Spyropoulos, who is leading the dig, Monday announced the discovery of a masterpiece of ancient Greek sculpture previously thought to have been lost.
The work, known as Pasquino, depicts a scene from Homer's epic poem "The Iliad" in which Menelaus carries the corpse of Patroclus from the battlefield at Troy. In addition, parts have also been found of works depicting Achilles and the Amazon queen Penthesilea, parts of a larger than life-size Satyr holding the young Dionysus, and the headless statue of a Kore running.
On the instructions of Culture Minister Thanos Mikroutsikos, ministry General Secretary George Thomas visited the excavation site yesterday morning. He described the finds as "extremely important".
Mr. Thomas confirmed previous decisions of the ministry to fence off and light the archaeological site and expropriate further areas of land. He said that as of next year, excavation work at the site, which began a decade ago, would become more systematic.
The government went on the attack yesterday, saying that the woeful state of the country's ship-building and repair industry could be traced back to the previous government's privatization policies.
Replying to criticism from former conservative premier Constantine Mitsotakis, the man at the helm of the government which sold the Elefsina Shipyards to the Peratikos Group, government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos said the present government "could not be held responsible for the dubious decisions and actions of the government of New Democracy".
Later, Industry Minister Costas Simitis and his alternate Christos Rokofyllos told reporters that the 1992 contract of sale of the shipyards was a "rotten plank".
Mr. Rokofyllos said the contract's lack of guarantees for the continued operation of the undertaking and the safeguarding of jobs was a theme used by the then-conservative government in the sale of other enterprises, which were also now closing or under threat. He underlined that companies privatized under the PASOK government had been sold with guarantees for their continued operation for a minimum of five years and with job security and the interests of the state protected.
The Elefsina Shipyards and its workforce of 2,000 were taken by surprise on August 14 when the Peratikos Group said it was suspending activities in Greece. Feverish activity by the government, in consultation with the yard's creditors and employees, gave rise to an agreement Monday night that the yards would continue to operate and no jobs would go while the enterprise went into liquidation and the government called for international tenders.
According to the agreement, the Investment Bank (a subsidiary of major shareholder the Commercial Bank) will assume the temporary management of the concern, while the government and creditor banks will undertake to propose to the court dealing with the case that all jobs be safeguarded.
The agreement further provides for drafting legislation for a recovery plan, including an invitation to tender for the highest bidder.
Also facing closure is the Filiates Textile Industry in Thesprotia - also sold in 1992 under the ND government's privatization policy - and the Plastika Kavalas factory, owned by the Petzetakis Group.
On Monday, former premier Mitsotakis said the government was "blatantly violating" its obligations towards the European Union, leading the shipbuilding and repair sector to "ruin" and putting thousands of workers out of a job while the New Democracy party called the government "incompetent".
At a press conference yesterday afternoon, Industry Minister Costas Simitis and Alternate Minister Christos Rokofyllos said that the recently announced closures of Elefsina Shipyards and a number of industrial plants which were sold by the state in 1992 was evidence that ND's privatization model was "collapsing".
"The businessmen selected are abandoning the effort. The cries of Mr. Mitsotakis are not enough to draw out the shots being fired by his friends," Mr. Simitis said.
He said there were two "types" of privatization. "The first type of privatization is associated with the predatory behavior of certain private interests, without terms and conditions, and was the tactic promoted by the government of ND. The second views privatization as an institutional measure to help the market, increase investments and jobs, and is the tactic adopted by the government of PASOK. This policy demands long-term procedures and this is the policy which the Industry Ministry will continue," Mr. Simitis said.
Producing the 1992 contract of sale of Elefsina Shipyards to the Peratikos Group, Mr. Rokofyllos described it as a "rotten plank". Citing a lack of guarantees for the continued operation of the undertaking and the safeguarding of jobs, Mr. Rokofyllos charged that exactly the same "method" had been used by the then conservative government to sell other companies which were now closing.
In contrast, he said, in the case of the companies privatized under the PASOK government, guarantees were given for their continued operation for a minimum of five years, jobs were secured and the interests of the state protected.
"The results," he said, "speak for themselves. At Neorion Shipyards (privatized under PASOK), the undertaking has completed 90,000 working days, instead of its contractual obligation of 30,000, today it does not owe one drachma and has undertaken repair work on 90 vessels in the last 7-8 months alone."
Replying to Mr. Simitis and Mr. Rokofyllos, ND spokesman Vassilis Manginas accused the government of following an "anti-developmental economic policy" which has had "negative repercussions for the country's production capacity and has taken away all possibilities for being competitive against other countries".
Mr. Manginas claimed that thousands of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were closing daily, tourism was down by more than 25 per cent and farm products remained unsold and were not being exported.
Earlier in the day, government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos, responding to criticism of the government's handling of the Elefsina issue by Mr. Mitsotakis and one of his former ministers, told reporters that there was no way that the present government "could be held responsible for the dubious decisions and actions of the government of New Democracy."
"Is it possible for the (present) government to be criticized for decisions taken in the period 1991-1993, when (Mr.) Mitsotakis was in power?" Mr. Venizelos asked. Mr. Venizelos said it was not possible for the government to intervene "asking for better terms since this would drive the businessmen away and the employees would be out of a job."
An announcement issued by Mr. Mitsotakis' press office later said "the charges by (Mr.) Venizelos can not conceal the tragic failure of the government which he represents with such passion." "PASOK was elected with the basic slogan of a rejection of privatization, it was obliged to follow the road to support it, but in practice it undermines it ... The Greek people are sampling the results of this policy now."
New Democracy leader Miltiades Evert met with Michalis Peratikos at the latter's request yesterday to be briefed on the company's decision to close down the shipyards.
According to ND sources, Mr. Evert told his interlocutor that closing down the shipyards was "wrong" despite the "right or false" intentions of the Group.
Political Spring party spokesman Notis Martakis said the Greek people were watching in amazement "as recriminations between the government and the main opposition New Democracy party reveal the backstage orgy, the privileged treatment of those favored by the two parties and the squandering of the country's public wealth". He said there was similarity in the behavior of both parties when they succeeded each other in power.
Speaking to the press yesterday, Coalition of the Left and Progress party leader Nikos Constantopoulos criticized the government of letting problems "drag on and rot," adding that the PASOK government's sole concern was to prolong its term in office. "...The ruling party has exhausted its limits and now only amasses problems for the country," he said.
Calling on the government to secure jobs (in the shipyards), he said political games at the expense of the shipyards' workers should be ceased.
Meanwhile, 350 employees facing the loss of their jobs at the Filiates Textiles Industry, in Thesprotia, occupied the factory's premises yesterday.
The Prefectural Council of Thesprotia held an extraordinary meeting to discuss the developments and a delegation of Thesprotia Prefecture unions and workers of the Filiates Textiles Industry are due to have a series of meetings today in Athens with ministers in an effort to resolve the problem. Associations and unions in Epirus issued statements and resolutions yesterday protesting the closure of the only industrial unit in Thesprotia.
The Petzetakis Group, meanwhile, announced the closure of its plastics production unit in Kavala yesterday, laying off 120 workers. The Group said losses of 1.2 billion drachmas over the last five years had prompted the decision.
"Mounting losses and the inability of the enterprise to adjust, have resulted in restricted bank lending, which in turn caused liquidity problems that have been covered by other companies of the group," an announcement said.
President of the General Confederation of Workers of Greece (GSEE), Christos Protopappas, will address a workers' meeting at the end of this month at a city-wide protest rally.
The Federation of Greek Industries (SEB) issued an announcement yesterday saying that the continued operation of production units was to be supported. This, the announcement said, was only possible if the viability of the firms' competitiveness on an international level was ensured.
This required, the announcement continued, the co-operation of the interested parties in the dealing of the problems which have led these firms to these crises. "SEB believes the issue should be dealt with in a positive climate, with appropriate handling which will allow the movement of capital for the necessary investments and restructure of employment," the announcement ended.
The government and opposition crossed swords in Parliament yesterday in a discussion on the proposed new Athens international airport at Spata.
Main opposition New Democracy party deputies disputed government claims that a revised agreement would save the state money and said it would vote against the new terms because it would cost 300 billion drachmas more.
Greece chose Germany's Hochtief consortium last year as a partner to build and operate a new $2.3 billion airport for Athens after improving the terms of a previous contract made with the conservative ND government.
Environment, Town Planning and Public Works Minister Costas Laliotis maintained that the revised agreement signed by the government would save the state about 100 billion drachmas but ND rapporteur Vassilis Korkolopoulos and ND parliamentary group spokesman and former national economy minister Stephanos Manos claimed the new terms would push the cost of the project up to 800 billion drachmas over the next three to four years.
Mr. Manos also claimed that the agreement itself was void, since it had been initialled only by Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou's legal adviser Antonis Vgontzas.
Alternate Environment, Town Planning and Public Works Minister Costas Geitonas retorted that this was because the management company of the new airport had first to be set up.
Mr. Korkolopoulos asked repeatedly whether any document existed setting out the contractual obligations of the German-led construction consortium. "You are rude and impertinent," Mr. Laliotis told the ND deputies in response to their accusations that the agreement considerably favored the Hochtief group and failed to protect the interests of the Greek state. Mr. Laliotis said that he would supply answers to all the questions raised during discussion of the agreement yesterday and today.
PASOK rapporteur George Anomeritis said that comparisons could not be drawn between the agreement signed by the government and the one drawn up by ND "since in reality no such agreement ever existed". Mr. Anomeritis said that ND had simply handed 14 documents to a private notary public on the same day the conservative government fell in September 1993.
Former PASOK transport minister Theodoros Pangalos criticized the government for concluding the agreement for construction of the new airport, saying it was of a "colonial character, imposed by organized interests", and charging that the decision was take n in the absence of parliament and the ruling party.
"Others decided ... (and) they decided somewhere else on our behalf, in our absence, and are leading Parliament to a shameful decision, which does not serve the interests of the Greek people, but their own," he said.
Mr. Pangalos added that he would vote against the contract at committee stage, and called on the government to bring it for discussion to the plenum of the House.
Called by New Democracy party deputy Christos Vyzovitis, who succeeded him to the rostrum, to name the interests he referred to, Mr. Pangalos did not reply.
Mr. Manos told a press conference after the discussion that the party would reject the agreement despite considering the project a necessity. "We are going down a bottomless well and the only thing that the government of PASOK managed to do was to spoil a balanced agreement," Mr. Manos said.
Mr. Korkolopoulos said that there were many weaknesses in the agreement, the most important of which was the lack of a document of specifications. He estimated that the cost of the project would be overshot by 50 per cent.
Claiming that the government had been caught by Hochtief "hook, line and sinker", Mr. Korkolopoulos said that the business risk had been transferred to the state and that this was sufficient cause to invalidate the agreement.
Under the previous agreement, Mr. Manos said, the project was characterized as "private", while under the revised agreement it was considered to be a state project. This, he went on, resulted in a change in tax rates and a gain of 10 billion drachmas for the contractor. Both Mr. Korkolopoulos and Mr. Manos wondered why the agreement had not been signed by any minister.
Political Spring representative Maria Machaira criticized the government for not releasing the documents accompanying the agreement in good time to allow an adequate examination, but said that her party would vote in favor of the agreement "because we are in favor of the construction of the airport".
Communist Party of Greece (KKE) rapporteur Demos Koubouris said that his party would vote against the agreement, adding that it had objections not only with regard to the cost but also because of the environmental repercussions of the project.
In statements later yesterday, Coalition of the Left and Progress party leader Nikos Constantopoulos called on all parliament deputies to vote down the agreement since he said the environment would suffer from the construction of the airport at Spata.
Mr. Constantopoulos said the disagreement between the government and the main opposition on this concern was "fictitious" and further accused the government of "concealing" additional German demands upon the deal, presenting them as "improvements in the agreement."