CYPRUS: U.S. ENVOY RICHARD HOLBROOKE HOLDS TALKS IN BID TO END DEADLOCK DIVIDING GREEKS AND TURKS

Record ID: 639775

  • Title: CYPRUS: U.S. ENVOY RICHARD HOLBROOKE HOLDS TALKS IN BID TO END DEADLOCK DIVIDING GREEKS AND TURKS
  • Date: 2nd May 1998
  • Summary: NICOSIA, CYPRUS (MAY 2, 1998) (RTV) 1. SLV EXTERIOR OF TURKISH CYPRIOT PRESIDENTIAL PALACE / LAS FLAGS FLYING (2 SHOTS) 0.09 2. SCU U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY RICHARD HOLBROOKE ENTERING PALACE 0.14 3. SLV HOLBROOKE AND TURKISH LEADER RAUF DENKTASH SITTING TOGETHER 0.18 4. SCU DENKTASH SAYING TO REPORTERS AS HE SITS WITH HOLBROOKE "WE EXIST AND WE ARE GOING TO CONTINUE TO EXIST AS THE TURKISH REPUBLIC OF NORTHERN CYPRUS. IF YOU WANT CYPRUS TO BE UNITED TWO STATES ARE READY TO UNITE, IF NOT CYPRUS MUST BE DIVIDED." (ENGLISH) 0.35 5. HOLBROOKE SCRATCHING HIS HEAD 0.40 6. WIDE OF ROOM 0.42 7. EXTERIOR OF GREEK CYPRIOT PRESIDENTIAL PALACE / SLV FLAG FLYING (2 SHOTS) 0.51 8. SLV MEETING TABLE 0.56 9. SCU VARIOUS OF GREEK LEADER GLAFCOS CLERIDES AND HOLBROOKE IN TALKS (3 SHOTS) 1.14 NICOSIA, CYPRUS (MAY 1, 1998) (RTV) 10. MV HOLBROOKE AT AIRPORT UPON ARRIVAL AT CYPRUS SPEAKING TO REPORTERS 1.30 11. SCU HOLBROOKE SAYING: "WE ARE NOT HERE TO IMPOSE A SOLUTION. WE CAN ONLY LISTEN TO THE TWO SIDES, SEE IF THE DISTANCES BETWEEN THEM ARE BRIDGEABLE AND REDUCIBLE WITH EXTERNAL ASSISTANCE -- NOT IMPOSITION, NOT COERCION, AND IF THEY ARE NOT, THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO ABOUT IT, WE'RE NOT HERE TO FORCE ANYONE INTO DOING ANYTHING THEY DON'T WANT TO DO'. (ENGLISH) 1.58 12. SLV STREET SCENES WITH PEOPLE IN STREET CAFE (2 SHOTS) 2.06 13. WIDE OF PEOPLE IN FRONT OF NEWSPAPER STAND 2.09 14. SCU UNIDENTIFIED MAN: "I DONT THINK IT'S A GIVE AND TAKE PROCESS. I THINK GREEK CYPRIOTS HAVE NOTHING TO GIVE BACK OF WHAT THEY LOST, AFTER 25 YEARS CHANCES OF A REASONABLE SETTELEMENT ARE ALMOST ZERO."(ENGLISH) 2.28 15. SLV UN PEACEKEEPERS ON GREEN LINE (5 SHOTS) 2.42 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 17th May 1998 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NICOSIA, CYPRUS
  • City:
  • Country: EUROPE Cyprus
  • Reuters ID: LVAEKJH7UQ4UY9M1X3NU3A81E89N
  • Story Text: U.S.envoy Richard Holbrooke has held talks on Cyprus in a fresh bid to end a deadlock which has divided Greeks and Turks on the island for decades.

    There was little indication of early progress as Richard Holbrooke shuttled between south and north Nicosia for separate talks with Cyprus President Glafcos Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash.

    Holbrooke met Denktash in northern Nicosia on Saturday (May 2) and later had a 90-minute working lunch with Clerides, only to return an hour later for a second meeting.

    Diplomats said Holbrooke was scheduled to have more talks with Denktash later in the afternoon.

    Earlier, Denktash said Cyprus would remain divided if Greek Cypriots did not acknowledge the existence of his breakaway state.

    "If you want Cyprus to be united, two states are ready to unite.If not, let Cyprus be divided," Denktash told journalists at the start of his talks with Holbrooke.

    "We exist and we are going to exist as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus," Denktash said at his residence in northern Nicosia.

    Holbrooke, sitting beside him, made no comment.

    Denktash pulled out of U.N.-brokered negotiations last year and has refused to return until Turkish Cypriot sovereignty is recognised.

    Holbrooke, architect of talks in 1995 that ended the Bosnian war, has dismissed suggestions that he would use tough diplomatic tactics to bring the Cypriot communities together.

    "We are not here to impose a solution.We can only listen to the two sides, see if the distances between them are bridgeable and reducible with external assistance -- not imposition, not coercion," he said on his arrival on Friday.

    Ethnic Greeks and Turks on Cyprus have been separated since Turkish troops invaded in 1974 after a brief Greek-inspired coup.A U.N.-patrolled "Green Line" buffer zone separates them.

    International mediators are anxious to head off growing tension over the arrival later this year of Russian anti-aircraft missiles ordered by the Greek Cypriots.

    Turkey, the only country to recognise the Turkish Cypriot state, has said it might take military action to prevent deployment of the S-300 missiles.

    Analysts say a missile crisis might lead to a full-scale conflict between NATO allies Greece and Turkey.

    The internationally recognised Cyprus government has begun membership talks with the European Union, but the Turkish Cypriots are not taking part and Denktash says the Clerides administration cannot represent them.


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