From: Guven.Guzeldere%STANFORD.BitNet@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU (hq.ggg)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: News/Haber
Date: 9 Nov 1992 23:13:31 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Reply-To: Turkish Cultural Program List <TRKNWS-L%USCVM.BitNet@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU>
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

CYPRUS TALKS TO END ON TUESDAY; MAY RESUME IN MARCH

    UNITED NATIONS, Nov 9 - Secretary-General Boutros
Boutros-Ghali on Monday gave the leaders of the two Cypriot
communities a written summary of their views on how to
reunite the divided island, prior to ending two weeks of
largely fruitless talks with them on Tuesday.
    Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash told reporters the
talks would be adjourned "until about March."
    Cypriot President George Vassiliou, who heads the Greek
Cypriot community, said negotiations were the only way to
solve the Cyprus problem, but declined to say when they
might be resumed.
    He is expected to be a candidate in elections set for
next February.
    Cyprus has been virtually partitioned since Turkish
troops occupied the north of the island in 1974 after a coup
in Nicosia engineered by the military junta then ruling
Greece.
    The U.N.-sponsored talks, which have dragged on for
years, aim to reunite Cyprus in a bi-zonal, bi-communal
federation.
    Vassiliou said he would defer any statement until
Tuesday "because, as you know, our last meeting is
tomorrow."
    But pressed to confirm when the next round might be
held, he replied: "The point is not to adjourn 'till March.
The point is that we want to have a solution of the Cyprus
problem, and obviously we believe that there is no other way
to have a solution than negotiations.
    "But for negotiations to succeed, there are certain
conditions that have to be fulfilled and I am sure these are
conditions the secretary-general will address in his report"
(to the Security Council).
    Vassiliou reiterated a statement he made last Friday
that "there has been no progress."
    Denktash said the secretary-general had given both sides
"the paper of evaluation" -- a document setting out the
views of the two sides, compared with a so-called set of
ideas and map which Boutros-Ghali presented to them in July
as a basis for negotiations.
    The two Cypriot leaders are expected to inform the
secretary-general at their final session on Tuesday whether
their views have been accurately summarised.
    The document is virtually certain to depict Vassiliou's
views as being closer to the U.N. proposals than those of
Denktash.
    Boutros-Ghali will next have to submit a report to the
Security Council which, in an August resolution, had urged
the two sides to pursue "uninterrupted negotiations" until
an overall agreement was reached.
    The resolution said that if an agreement did not emerge
from the latest round of talks, which began on October 28,
the secretary-general should "identify the reasons for the
failure and...recommend to the council alternative courses
of action to resolve the Cyprus problem."
    The council's five permanent members -- the United
States, Russia, Britain, China and France -- have been
following the talks closely and several sent special envoys
to New York for that purpose.
    Most of their efforts have been directed at persuading
Denktash to align his positions more closely with the
secretary-general's proposals.
    The joint daily meetings with Boutros-Ghali have been a
continuation of sessions held here from June 18 to 23 and
from July 15 to August 14. Most of that time, however, was
devoted to separate meetings by each of the Cypriot leaders
with the secretary-general, with only three days of face-to-
face talks.

EC PLANS CLOSER TIES WITH TURKEY

    BRUSSELS, Nov 9 - European Community foreign ministers
on Monday announced plans for closer political ties with
Turkey, while urging Ankara to help resolve problems over
the future of Cyprus.
    The EC ministers, who met their Turkish counterpart
Hikmet Cetin at a session of the EC-Turkey Association
Council, said they proposed holding political dialogue with
Turkey through meetings at the highest level between the two
sides.
    But Greece insisted that the EC should say this in a
statement by the Community alone rather than in a joint
statement with Turkey.
    Greek diplomats said they were also instrumental in
getting the EC statement to include references to the
Community's deep concern at the situation in Cyprus.
    British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd, representing the
EC's rotating presidency, quoted from the statement at a
news conference when he said the status quo in Cyprus was
not acceptable.
    He said the 12 had asked Turkey to use its influence to
resolve problems related to intercommunal talks on the
future of Cyprus which have been going on inconclusively in
New York.
    Cyprus has been virtually partitioned since Turkish
troops occupied the north of the island in 1974 after a
short-lived coup in Nicosia engineered by the military junta
then ruling Greece.
    The Turkish Cypriots proclaimed their own state in 1983,
but it is recognised only by Ankara.