AKEL and RTP agree to undertake initiatives for Cyprus problem

Left-wing AKEL and the Republican Turkish Party (RTP) have agreed to undertake initiatives in every direction in their respective Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities to promote the procedure provided for in a letter sent by UN Undersecretary General for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari.
The leaders of the two parties, AKEL General Secretary Demetris Christofias and RTP President Ferdi Sabit Soyer, announced the decision after a meeting on Wednesday at RTP’s headquarters, in the Turkish-occupied part of Nicosia, the world’s last divided capital city.
Christofias said that the two parties also agreed to promote the issue of disengagement, which the two sides have been requesting for some time.
Regarding the opening of a checkpoint in

, a main commercial road in the centre of the walled city of Nicosia, he said the two parties agreed that it should be opened the soonest possible by following the same procedure through the UN as in other cases.
”This is the joint statement of the two parties after the constructive meeting we had,” Christofias pointed out and explained that ”in order to be constructive and effective in our efforts, we have decided not to make any further statements.”
Asked to clarify which positions on military disengagement the parties had agreed on, Christofias said ”our parties agree that there should be disengagement in Nicosia and elsewhere, we are talking about disengagement and everything can be discussed.”
To a question if it was agreed that all the symbols in the

area should be removed, Christofias said ”we did not go into details,” adding that this was the UN’s job.
Soyer said ”both parties are working for a solution of the Cyprus problem and peace in Cyprus, aware of their responsibilities on the issue.”
”In this context, the exchange of visits aims at discussing important issues, on some of which we follow the same line,” he added.
Soyer said ”both sides have the problem of drought, we need a lot of rain and not a lot of words,” noting that he would not respond to any questions in order to maintain the ”good climate of the meeting.”