Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat have been holding direct negotiations since September 2008, with either the U.N. Secretary-General's Special Advisor for Cyprus Alexander Downer or his deputy Taye-Brook Zerihoun present at the meetings. The two leaders' agenda includes the core issues of governance and power-sharing, property, the European Union, the economy, territorial security, and guarantees, and they are working their way through the issues to identify areas of convergence and divergence. Their aides, George Iacovou and Ozdil Nami, meet to write down the understandings reached and prepare for the leaders' sessions. Christofias, a Greek Cypriot, complained that during negotiations on governance and power sharing Talat was trying to give more power to federal states and create a confederation instead of a federation. Talat denies that he seeks a confederation. The two sides also differ on how a united Cyprus will be created. The Greek Cypriots insist that the Republic of Cyprus will evolve into a federal state, which will be its continuation, while the Turkish Cypriots say that united Cyprus will be a new state. According to leaks of (Greek) Cypriot National Council documents particularly to right-wing media and some statements of officials, the two sides differ about the executive and its power. Greek Cypriots have proposed the election of a president and vice president on the same ticket in a direct election for a six-year term. The president will be a Greek Cypriot and the vice president will be a Turkish Cypriot; they will rotate offices, with the Greek Cypriot holding the presidency for four years and the Turkish Cypriot succeeding him for two years. A council of ministers will be jointly appointed by the president and vice president and be composed of six Greek Cypriots and three Turkish Cypriots. If the council cannot reach decisions unanimously, then a simple majority will rule, provided that it includes at least one Greek Cypriot and one Turkish Cypriot minister. A conflict resolution committee will include the president, vice president, and one minister from each community. The committee will try to reach solutions unanimously. Failing that, it will reach solutions by majority; failing that, the president will decide. Talat has said he has proposed that the executive have two alternating presidents elected by the Senate. He is opposed to a single list of Greek and Turkish candidates to be elected by all of the people because then the Greeks would elect the Turkish candidate. With regard to the issue of property, which is critical for Greek Cypriots who lost properties in the north, Christofias insists that the legal owner must have the right to decide how to deal with his property, while Talat believes that the current inhabitant must have priority and that the issue should be resolved through compensation, exchange, and restitution. On the issue of security guarantees, in November 2008, Cypriot Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou explained that his government believes the European Union (EU) can offer guarantees to all of its member states and even offer guarantees to third countries. Therefore, he saw no reason for guarantees from third countries (Turkey). Turkish Cypriots and Turkey maintain that the 1960 Treaties of Guarantee and Alliance must be reaffirmed in any settlement because, without guarantees, the Turkish Cypriots would feel insecure due to their history with ethnic violence on the island in the 1960s, and Turkish guarantees should not be lifted until Turkey joins the EU. In general, the Greek Cypriots claim that Talat is not free to negotiate, but serves the will of Turkey, and Talat claims that Christofias is dependent on his anti-settlement coalition partners. Talat admits that the Turkish Cypriots' reliance on Turkey for external relations and economic survival makes him dependent on the mother state, but insists that Ankara is not issuing instructions to him. According to the Secretary-General's Special Advisor for Cyprus Alexander Downer, the two sides have agreed to confidence-building measures, including the crossing of ambulances in emergency cases, a committee on communications and liaison for criminal matters, an advisory board on the preservation of cultural heritage, and a U.N. Development Program project on water-saving. After a two-hear hiatus, 70-year-old Dervis Eroglu made a political comeback in December 2008, when he was elected chairman of the opposition National Unity Party (UBP) in northern Cyprus. He previously had held the post for about 25 years and had served as "prime minister" of northern Cyprus seven times. Eroglu stated that he is not against negotiations with the Greek Cypriots, but that the process should be based on the "reality that there are two equal sovereign states." He added, "Our people are not condemned to unite with the Greek Cypriot side. Our right to separate is just as valid as our right to unite. We feel it is necessary to make alternative plans with the cooperation of Motherland Turkey." Eroglu charged that Talat had made a mistake when he accepted a single sovereignty and single citizenship for Cyprus. In parliamentary elections in the north on April 19, 2009, the UBP won an overwhelming victory of 26 out of 50 seats, Talat's Republican Turkish Party (CTP) in alliance with the United Forces (BG), placed second with 15 seats, the Democratic Party (DP) third with 5 seats, the Communal Democracy Party (TDP) fourth with two seats, and the Freedom and Reform Party (ORP), fifth with two seats. The result has been attributed to popular disenchantment with the slow pace of settlement process, to economic issues, and the government's failure to end the international isolation of the north. A new government is expected to be formed by mid-May. Eroglu and said that he would continue to support negotiations, but wants to name someone to accompany the president at the talks. Talat retains authority to negotiate as long as he is president – until April 2010. However, the Turkish Cypriot parliament will have to vote to refer an agreement to a referendum and that may now be difficult. Turkey will likely to exercise a restraining influence on Eroglu. On April 21, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, "It would be wrong for the new government (of northern Cyprus) to end the negotiations or to continue the negotiations on a basis different from the one that has been followed so far.... The process must continue exactly as before.... We will never support a move that would weaken the hand of Talat." Turkish President Abdullah Gul also signaled his support for Talat. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party (DIKO), the main governing partner of President Christofias's Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL), held party elections in March 2009. Hard-line candidates won all three posts contested – deputy leader, vice president, and general secretary; some want their party to withdraw from the coalition. The vote was interpreted as a defeat for party leader and Speaker of the House of Representatives Marios Garoyian, who has been relatively circumspect in his criticism of the President. Christofias may face difficulties in gaining approval for any agreement he may reach with Talat. In November 2008, several incidents occurred in an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) that Cyprus had declared with Egypt, off the south coast of the island. Turkish warships accosted Panamanian-flagged ships with Norwegian oceanographic researchers under contract to the Republic of Cyprus aboard who were conducting a survey for possible oil and gas reserves and forced the ships to cease operations and withdraw. Cyprus claimed that it was exercising its sovereign right to conduct surveys and that Turkey violated international law. Cyprus complained to the U.N. Turkey alleged that the research was being conducted inside its continental shelf and argued that the Greek Cypriots had no right to explore for oil or gas before reaching a settlement with the Turkish Cypriots on the status of the island. In fall 2008, the Cypriot National Guard cancelled its annual Nikiforos exercises and the Turks cancelled their Toros military exercises on Cyprus. These acts conform with an established pattern: exercises occur when no progress is being made or no talks held and they are cancelled when talks are ongoing in order not to disturb a favorable climate. On a visit to Turkey in March 7, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said, "the United states continues to support the U.N.-sponsored talks now taking place to achieve a settlement of the Cyprus conflict based on reunification of the island as a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation." Her joint statement with Foreign Minister Ali Babacan also called for "ending the isolation of the Turkish Cypriots" in the context of supporting a settlement. (Greek) Cypriot officials then restated their view that "the so-called isolation of the Turkish Cypriots" is the result of the Turkish occupation. President Barack Obama briefly encountered President Christofias on the sidelines of an European Union-U.S. summit in Prague on April 4. Then on April 6, President Obama addressed Turkish Grand National Assembly (parliament) in Ankara and said, "The United States is willing to offer all the help sought by the parties as they work towards a just and lasting settlement that reunifies Cyprus as a bizonal and bicommunal federation." Also in Prague, Secretary Clinton met Cypriot Foreign Minister Marcos Kyprianou. On April 15, she met Talat at the State Department. Talat said that he had asked the Secretary to support his call for a more active U.N. role, to appoint a special U.S. representative for Cyprus, and to contribute to efforts to lift the isolation of the Turkish Cypriot community.