US Vice
President Jo Biden on Friday affirmed the USA’s longstanding commitment to the
reunification of Cyprus as a bizonal, bicommunal federation and looked forward
to the opening of a new round of intensive negotiations under UN
auspices.
During a
meeting with President Nicos Anastasiades on Friday, the two men agreed that a
new impetus to talks was needed.
The Vice
President also welcomed prospects for broadening cooperation among countries in
the Eastern Mediterranean and said Cyprus was a strong partner in support of
international efforts to promote security and stability in the region.
Finally, the
Vice President offered his congratulations to President Anastasiades on his
birthday that day and to the people of Cyprus, who will celebrate more than 50
years of independence on 1 October.
Gul says
this is a first
Turkish
President Abdullah Gul told journalists in New York on Thursday that this was
the first time that the Greek Cypriots did not walk out of the hall while he
was addressing the UN General Assembly.
He also said
he had spoken with the Cyprus delegation at the reception. “I told them to cover
the distance, be determined, don’t prolong this job. With the cooperation of
Turkey, Cyprus and Greece, a separate pillar may be formed for the European Union
in the Eastern Mediterranean”, he said, Turkish daily Zaman reports.
UN S-G
meets with Eroglu
The UN
Secretary-General met yesterday in New York with the Turkish Cypriot leader,
Dervis Eroglu.
A statement
from the UN S-G’s spokesman’s office said they discussed preparations for the
anticipated resumption in October of negotiations aimed at achieving a
comprehensive settlement in Cyprus.
They
exchanged views on progress made in preparing the ground for the resumption of
talks, as well as outstanding challenges, and possible confidence-building
measures.
Speaking to
the press afterwards, Mr Eroglu said the Turkish side wanted to start negotiations in October and said
that the problem could be resolved by March 2014 if the Greek side comes
to the table, Ankara Anatolia news agency reports.
"We are
ready to start negotiations intensively in October and get results from
it," he said, "We have stressed that we are ready to
make a result oriented negotiation immediately for a comprehensive
solution."
"The
Turkish side wants to solve the problem and has proved this with
the referendum but the Greek side has shown they don't want to solve
the problem by rejecting all the plans proposed so far."
He expressed
the belief that an agreement can be reached on the fundamental issues by the
end of the year and on the details by January or February 2014. “Thus, we
could resolve the problem completely by March with a referendum to be held on
both sides," he told the press.
He added that Anastasiades was
wasting time by raising the issue of Varosha, as neither Turkey nor Northern
Cyprus have this on their agenda.
Coffeeshop
The Cyprus
Mail’s satirical
column Coffeeshop says poor old Prez Nik came under attack from our
bash-patriotic nay-sayers for his alleged failure to use the full armoury of
Cyprob clichés and slogans, bequeathed to him by his predecessors, when he
addressed the UN General Assembly for the first time on Thursday.
The
used-rhetoric salesmen were livid with Nik, because, as EDEK’s spokesman
Demetris Papadakis complained, the ‘condemnation of Turkey’ was absent from his
‘cautious’ speech aimed at ‘not upsetting’ the occupiers. In previous years,
the use of the condemnatory Cyprob clichés was a sure-fire method of upsetting
members of the Turkish delegation at the UN.
The
General Assembly “was offered as an opportunity to say certain things by their
name, to condemn Turkey for its continuing aggressive behaviour and to inform
the international community about the continuing crimes by Turkey,” a
disappointed Papadakis said on Friday.
Self-regarding,
green, freedom fighter Perdikis saw not a single sign of goodwill by Turkey to
justify Nik’s decision to adopt a “mild tone and appear even more conciliatory
than previous presidents.”
In fact
he saw “very negative developments” in New York, even though he was still
sleeping well at night in contrast to Papadakis who was being kept awake at
night because “the nightmare of a new version of the Annan plan is visible.”
The
Lillikas movement was also having Annan nightmares over Nik’s dealings in New
York. It was disgusted that Nik referred to Turkey’s foreign minister as a ‘friend’
instead of as a ‘conqueror’ and made no mention of the occupation in his
speech.
“We would
have expected Mr Anastasiades, once the Turkish delegation has walked out of
the General Assembly and did not hear his speech, to defend the dignity of the
Cyprus Republic and Cypriot Hellenism,” said a statement.
If
Lillikas was president he would have taken a platoon of fully-armed National
Guardsmen to the General Assembly to defend our dignity. And if the platoon was
not allowed into the building he could have fought for our dignity by
bombarding the General Assembly with the full force of the Cyprob clichés that ‘put
Turkey in the dock’ and make her want to withdraw the occupation troops.
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