CYPRUS: U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL KOFI ANNAN SAID WE WOULD PRESENT HIS LATEST REUNIFICATION PLAN FOR CYPRUS
Record ID:
222928
CYPRUS: U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL KOFI ANNAN SAID WE WOULD PRESENT HIS LATEST REUNIFICATION PLAN FOR CYPRUS
- Title: CYPRUS: U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL KOFI ANNAN SAID WE WOULD PRESENT HIS LATEST REUNIFICATION PLAN FOR CYPRUS
- Date: 26th February 2003
- Summary: (U6) NICOSIA, CYPRUS (FEBRUARY 26, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. SV/SLV U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL KOFI ANNAN AND TURKISH CYPRIOT LEADER RAUF DENKTASH SHAKING HANDS, WALKING INTO BUILDING (2 SHOTS) 0.42 2. MCU GUARD WATCHING 0.46 3. SV ANNAN AND DENKTASH LEAVING BUILDING, DENKTASH WALKING AWAY 1.00 4. SV KOFI ANNAN LEAVING BUILDING, GETTING INTO CAR 1.17 5. SV CAR READY TO GO 1.18 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 13th March 2003 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NICOSIA, CYPRUS
- Country: Cyprus
- Reuters ID: LVA6B8XYV57NOXV98KW55KRN611T
- Story Text: U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he would present
his latest reunification plan for Cyprus to leaders of the
Greek and Turkish communities on Wednesday with a seven day
deadline for a deal.
Underscoring the importance the United Nations places
on a deal, Annan is set to spend three days on the east
Mediterranean island despite mounting tensions over Iraq.
Annan arrived in Cyprus after talks in Ankara and Athens,
in a final push to get a deal on Cyprus ahead of a February 28
deadline set so a united island can sign an accession treaty
on April 16 to join the European Union.
Annan has said it was high time Greek and Turkish
Cypriots, locked in long U.N.-monitored talks, reached a
decision if they did not want to waste an historic
opportunity.
He also defended the U.N. timetable, saying its deadline
left just enough time for both communities to hold a popular
vote on the plan on March 30.
The eastern Mediterranean island was partitioned along
ethnic lines after a 1974 invasion of Turkish troops,
triggered by a failed Athens-backed coup to unite Cyprus with
Greece.
A Cyprus deal would be based on a largely decentralised
bi-zonal confederation, with one area populated largely by
Greek Cypriots and the other by Turkish Cypriots.
Annan said his Cyprus envoy Alvaro de Soto had already
gone over the elements of the revised draft in the past week
and both sides got a preview of the proposed changes last
Sunday.
A draft of the changes made available to Reuters shows the
deal would seek to limit the territory under Turkish Cypriot
administration to 28.2 percent of the island from 36 percent
held today. The earlier draft suggested the Turkish Cypriots
would get 28.6 percent.
That arrangement would allow some 92,000 Greek Cypriot
refugees to return to their former homes and displace around
40,000 Turkish Cypriots and Turks.
It also seeks to limit the quota of Greek Cypriot
resettlement in the Turkish Cypriot area to 21 percent of the
total population from 28 percent in the earlier text.
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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