Cyprus President should be ready to meet with Talat

Government Spokesman Vassilis Palmas said on Monday that it would be wrong for President Tassos Papadopoulos to refuse to meet with Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, before February’s presidential elections.

”If and when Mr. Talat is ready to discuss, prior to the presidential elections of next February, the promotion of the July agreement, he clinched with the President last year, I think it would be a wrong approach to refuse to attend a meeting with him,” Palmas said.

He added that last week’s meeting with Talat aimed at promoting the process that has emerged from the July agreement and not at discussing the substance of the Cyprus problem.

”The National Council convened before the Papadopoulos-Talat meeting and unanimously agreed to this goal, that is for the President of the Republic to go and try to promote the process,” Palmas said, adding that about 50 meetings had taken place between the aides of the leaders of the two communities as part of the July agreement.

He noted that these meetings reached a stage where no practical results or progress could be achieved, adding that ”we went to the meeting with Mr. Talat, responding to a call by the Security Council.”

”Progress during this period is obviously difficult,” Palmas pointed out, adding that this was due to the behaviour and stance of the Turkish Cypriot side.

The President of the Republic and the Greek Cypriot community should at least be credited with not being responsible for the current deadlock, he added.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third.

President Papadopoulos and Talat agreed on 8 July 2006, during a meeting in Nicosia in the presence of UN official Ibrahim Gambari, to begin a process of bicommunal discussions on issues that affect the day-to-day life of the people and concurrently those that concern substantive issues, both contributing to a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem.