CYPRUS: UNITED NATIONS ENVOY TO CYPRUS SAYS AN AGREEMENT TO REUNITE THE DIVIDED ISLAND COULD BE REACHED BY FEBRUARY

Record ID: 338011

  • Title: CYPRUS: UNITED NATIONS ENVOY TO CYPRUS SAYS AN AGREEMENT TO REUNITE THE DIVIDED ISLAND COULD BE REACHED BY FEBRUARY
  • Date: 15th January 2003
  • Summary: NICOSIA, CYPRUS (JANUARY 13, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. LV ZOOM IN TURKISH-CONTROLLED SIDE OF THE ISLAND, WITH THE TURKISH FLAG (RED) ALONGSIDE THE FLAG OF THE 'TURKISH REPUBLIC OF NORTHERN CYPRUS' FLAG (WHITE) 0.23 2. SLV BUFFER ZONE BETWEEN THE GREEK AND THE TURKISH PARTS OF THE ISLAND; SLV GREEK CYPRIOT SOLDIER GUARDING; SLV TURKISH FLAGS ON TURKISH SID
  • Embargoed: 30th January 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NICOSIA, CYPRUS
  • Country: Cyprus
  • Reuters ID: LVA67DCOREFC9EEJSH4WHD34UIIQ
  • Story Text: The U.N. envoy for Cyprus has said that an
    agreement to reunite the war-divided island could be reached
    by February 28, a U.N.-set deadline.

    Alvaro de Soto, the United Nations envoy for Cyprus
    urged the island's estranged sides on Monday (January 13, 2003)
    to agree on his blueprint for a settlement within the next six
    weeks, saying the plan offered little scope for drastic
    changes.

    After the failure of a last-minute peace deal on the
    sidelines of an EU enlargement summit in Copenhagen in
    December, de Soto has returned to the island to pick up where
    he left off.

    "We are now on a pretty tight timeframe," said de Soto,
    the main architect of the U.N. plan, who is pushing for
    acceptance of a broad power-sharing deal by February 28.

    He said the U.N. Security Council and European Union
    strongly backed Secretary-General Kofi Annan's decision to
    pursue a comprehensive settlement by then. The date would give
    the sides enough time to prepare for separate referendums,
    covering both the question of EU accession and the settlement,
    which the plan proposes be held on March 30.

    De Soto cautioned against drastic changes in the plan,
    which he said would only be possible if the two sides pursued
    them in a measured and focused manner without unilateral
    changes.

    After meeting the Greek Cypriot leader Glafcos Clerides in
    Nicosia, de Soto addressed a news conference and outlined the
    timetable for carrying out the agreement.

    "As foreseen in the plan, an agreement of a
    comprehensive settlement , with all political issue resolved
    between the two leaders, all security issues between Greece
    and Turkey resolved, and all technical work completed, by 28
    February, would allow just enough time for separate referendum
    to be prepared and conducted so as to enable the people to
    take an educated decision on the 30th of March. If the results
    of the referendum were positive a new state of affairs in
    Cyprus will come into being on 31 March. That would then allow
    just two weeks to put in place certain basic parts of the new
    institutions of the common state, and allow the EU to revise
    and approve the terms of the accession treaty to accommodate
    the new state of affairs in the manner foreseen in the plan.

    So that a reunited Cyprus could sign the treaty of accession
    on 16 April".

    Cyprus, which is due to join the European Union in May
    2004, has been divided since a Turkish invasion in 1974
    triggered by a brief Greek-inspired coup.

    Admission of a divided island would effectively mean
    accession of only the Greek Cypriot part, leaving a Turkish
    Cypriot community hobbled by years of crippling trade
    restrictions out in the cold.

    A peace deal would remove a serious source of tension
    between NATO allies Greece and Turkey and ease Ankara's own
    bid to join the EU.

    But the chances of an early deal are far from clear given
    the proximity of Greek Cypriot presidential elections and the
    stiff resistance of the Turkish Cypriot leadership to key
    clauses in the plan.

    The U.N. plan calls for the reunification of Cyprus with
    broad power-sharing between Greek and Turkish Cypriots in a
    "common state" linking two ethnic and largely self-governing
    administrations.

    De Soto was scheduled to have a separate meetings with
    Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash later on Monday.

    Clerides, 83, is seeking re-election in the February 16
    poll for sixteen months in order to complete U.N. negotiations
    and EU accession.


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