UK gives another GBP 45k for missing persons
Britain’s Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in Cyprus on Wednesday that negotiation and compromise is the only route to solving the Cyprus problem, while adding that no solution can be imposed from the outside.
Speaking at a press conference after separate meetings with the Republic of Cyprus foreign minister George Iacovou and the Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, Straw said “The only route for reunification is negotiation and compromise. Only a negotiated settlement will command the support of both communities and there can be no imposed solution.”
Straw, who was at pains to emphasise that Cyprus and therefore the Greek Cypriot community would be outside the European Union” if the UK had not supported its membership, said he came here “as a friend of Cyprus”.
During questions, Straw played down the refusal of President Tassos Papadopoulos to meet him. Papadopoulos refused to meet Straw when it was confirmed that Straw would be meeting Talat at his offices of the president of the unrecognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
“It is up to His Excellency the President of the Republic of Cyprus whether he was available to see me or not. My interlocutor is the foreign minister and I have had a good meeting already with George Iacovou and I look forward to another meeting straight after this,” he said.
“My meeting with Mr Talat of course does not imply recognition of the so-called Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus nor an upgrading of our relations,” he said.
Straw said he went to visit Mr Talat “in conformity with a very longstanding precedent” which has applied to British ministers going back to Malcom Rifkind and Mr Dentkash in 1996 and foreign interlocuters including European Commissioners for Enlargement Olli Rehn, Guenther Verheugen and the President of the European Parliament Josep Borrell.
“We were not aware of any change in the policy by the government of Cyprus. I am not syaing that we would have changed our position if we had been aware but we couldn’t change the position because we weren’t aware,” he said.
Cyprus the priority in 2006
Straw said that he regarded “Cyprus as one of my highest priorities for 2006,” adding “the current situation is bad for Cyprus bad for the Eastern Mediterranean and it’s bad for the European Union.
The present deadlock serves nobody’s interests. The longer a settlement is delayed the harder it will be to achieve it.”
Referring to those Cypriots “who long to return to their property”, he said “They shouldn’t be kept waiting–one reason why an early settlement is needed.”
Although he said that the UK has never seen itself as a mediator, he expressed concern that there had been no dialogue since the referndum in 2004.
“The main obstacle is the lack of dialogue between the two communities.”
Turkey’s statement “deserves to be taken seriously”
He said that the statement yesterday by the Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gul was “an important statement” which “deserves be taken seriously.”
“We’ve got also to make progress on lifting the isolation of the Turkish Cypriot community. This is a separate track from Turkey’s EU accession process but it is in all our interests to bring Turkish Cypriots closer to the European Union.”
On Tuesday Gul announced his suggestion to the UN that, essentially, it open up sea and air traffic to the Republic of Cyprus (as it is obliged to under its EU accession process) in return for the Republic of Cyprus agreeing to open air and trade traffic in northern Cyprus. So far there has been no official response from the Greek Cypriot side.
Straw said he has read a lot about the history of the island.
“The history of Cyprus is the reason why there is a problem. The future is the reason why we have to find a solution.”
More money for missing persons
Straw also said that there needs to be progress on missing persons and announced that the UK is donating a further GBP 45,000 to help train forensic archaelogists from both communities.
Fiona Mullen
