Attending a memorial service for missing persons in Liopetri village in the southern Famagusta disrict, President Anastasiades said that the South had struggled to achieve the right framework for the talks while formulating the joint statement which preceded the re-launch of the Cyprus negotiations.
He said that however, stumbling blocks were already being reached in the renewed negotiations and progress was not a good as was hoped.
Anastasiades said the dialogue has begun and “the first indications are not as encouraging as we would like.”
He called on the goodwill and unity of all Cypriots to achieve a solution: “That is why the struggle now begins and it will be hard. That is why unity is imperative from all”, the President stressed.
Six days ago, chief Turkish Cypriot negotiator, Kudret Ozersoy reported the following from the the negation meeting last Tuesday:
“The first is the issue of the election of the executive power. We listened to the views of the Greek Cypriot side on issues such as how the federal executive power will be elected, what its composition will be and how it will be taking decisions and we once again recalled our position.
We discussed the issue of the federal powers. You know that on this issue there is a convergences paper already. However, disagreement existed between the sides regarding some powers. Today, the Greek Cypriot side brought a statement with a little bit different point of view [on these powers]. We will evaluate this and in the next meeting we will evaluate whether or not it could be matched up with the list of powers and convergence paper which we have.
The third issue we discussed is the property. We had the opportunity as Turkish Cypriot side to explain our expectations on the property and our proposal which is on the table, but we will continue doing this at the next meeting. The Greek Cypriot side conveyed to us some general views on the property. When the Greek Cypriot side explains its stance regarding the property, it shares also its view regarding the territory in relation with this. We as Turkish Cypriot side are not essentially against the discussion of the territory. It is also one of the six chapters, but because it is out of the question to negotiate it at this stage, as the Turkish Cypriot side we shared our criteria in general on the territory issue. In the next meeting we will explain it in a little bit more detail”.
Lately the International Crisis Group published a report on why the current framework for negotiations has proved fruitless and has suggested opening a debate on the idea of an independent Turkish Cypriot state within the EU.
