Papadopoulos: our proposals aim to promote July agreement

by Maria Koniotou

Lisbon, (CNA) — Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos said here Friday that the proposals he has submitted to the UN Secretary General clearly aim at promoting a UN-brokered agreement, reached with the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community in July last year.

He also said that what Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat has conveyed to the UN Secretary General is just Confidence Building Measures (CBM), which, as he pointed out, even though they are important to help improve the climate within which talks are held, they do not address the substance of the issue, that is substantive talks for a Cyprus settlement.

”If our proposals to promote the Gambari process have no significance according to Talat, one could suggest that Talat’s proposals for CBM only are even less significant,” Papadopoulos added, invited to comment on statements by Talat who dismissed his proposals to the UN.

”We have submitted our proposals to the UN, according to a UN request. My understanding is that Mr. Talat has conveyed to the Secretary General proposals on Confidence Building Measures only, which even though they are significant to help improve the climate within which talks are held, they do not address the substance of the issue, that is substantive talks for a Cyprus settlement,’ ‘ he stressed.

Replying to questions, he said he has called on the UN to undertake an initiative for the practical promotion of the Gambari agreement,.

On July 8, 2006, Papadopoulos and Talat reached an agreement in Nicosia, in the presence of UN official Ibrahim Gambari, aiming at preparing the ground for substantive negotiations on the Cyprus question, leading to a political settlement that would reunite the country, divided since Turkish troops invaded in 1974.

The agreement has yet to be implemented because of various impediments the Turkish side puts forward.