The United Nations delivered a revised reunification plan to the rival leaders of Cyprus yesterday in a final attempt to secure agreement before the EU summit starts in Copenhagen tomorrow.
But Rauf Denktash, the veteran leader of the Turkish side, said the document contained nothing new. His spokesman said he would be unable to go to Copenhagen, because of health problems.
Under intense pressure from all sides – including Turkey, whose ambitions to join the EU depend on a solution in Cyprus – to accept, his motive is probably to show his hand is being forced. Glafkos Clerides, his Greek counterpart, said he would take his advisory council with him to Copenhagen.
Greek and Turkish Cypriots demonstrated in Nicosia yesterday against the revised plan, which provides for fewer than 70,000 of the 200,000 Greeks expelled from the north in 1974 being allowed to return.
Denktash illness hits hopes of Cyprus deal
By FT reporters Published: December 10 2002
An attempt by Kofi Annan, United Nations secretary-general, to secure a peace deal over the divided island of Cyprus faced a setback on Tuesday night after Rauf Denktash, the Turkish Cypriot leader, unexpectedly decided to fly to Ankara for a medical check-up.
In a move aimed at intensifying pressure on the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders, Mr Annan on Tuesday asked both men to attend tomorrow's European Union summit on enlargement in Copenhagen. His letter, delivered with last-minute revisions of the UN's latest peace plan, said Cyprus had a "rendezvous with history" that should not be missed.
He called for a "decisive conclusion this week so that a reunited Cyprus may accede to the European Union". According to the UN plan, drawn up last month, Cyprus would be a single state formed of two equal "component states" with a common central government.
Mr Denktash, who had heart surgery in New York two months ago, reportedly felt unwell after attending a rally in north Nicosia staged by Turkish Cypriots who oppose the UN plan.
He told the crowd he was unhappy with the UN's latest proposal because it did not address his longstanding demand for recognition of the Turkish Cypriot republic in the north of the island.
If he is unable to go to Copenhagen, Ergun Olgun, his chief aide, would attend in his place. Mr Denktash would be in contact by telephone for negotiations if the need arose.
Speculation mounted in the Turkish Cypriot-controlled north of the island that Mr Denktash would agree to the UN plan providing Turkey won a date at Copenhagen for starting accession talks before May 1 2004 when the 10 new member states are formally due to enter the union. Britain - backed by Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal - want talks to start before May 2004.
A date before May 2004 would allay Turkish fears that a decision on its own accession could be delayed indefinitely if left up to the enlarged EU with 25 member states - including a divided Cyprus in the absence of a peace deal. It would also encourage Turkey to work hard to finalise a Cyprus settlement in the mean time.
European Union leaders are expected to decide tomorrow night, on the first day of the two-day summit, when they will start accession negotiations with Turkey.
Diplomats believe a conditional date for Turkey, a candidate member since 1999, will unlock the Cyprus issue, ending the 28-year-old division of the island. The Turkish military invaded the northern part in 1974 when the then Greek junta attempted a coup on the island.
Diplomats said if no deal in principle was reached at Copenhagen, the chances of reaching a settlement would be lost for several years.
The Cyprus issue is also linked to the EU's European Security and Defence Policy. Turkey has persistently blocked "Berlin Plus" - an accord to allow the Europeans access to Nato assets.
Diplomats said the three issues - Cyprus, a date for Turkey and Berlin Plus - were so intertwined that agreement on one could mean agreement on all.
"This is the most complex matrix of negotiations in which the EU has ever been involved," Jack Straw, British foreign secretary, said after EU foreign ministers wrapped up their last meeting before the summit.
He also said Britain would allow people from new member states to work in the UK, instead of waiting for up to seven years after joining the EU.
Joschka Fischer, German foreign minister, said many of the 15 member states - "it is in double-digit figures" - support the Franco-German plan to give Ankara a date to start accession negotiations in July 2005.
President Glafcos Clerides, the Greek Cypriot leader, was due to fly to Copenhagen today, accompanied by the leaders of the island's four big political parties. Their backing would be essential to persuade Greek Cypriot voters to accept a settlement that would exclude more than 60,000 former residents of northern Cyprus from returning to their homes.
Alvaro de Soto, the UN special negotiator for Cyprus, handed over an eight-page document to both leaders after four days of intensive "proximity" talks that involved shuttling across the UN- patrolled "Green Line" dividing the two communities.
The document is understood to make only minor changes to the draft plan. It would meet Greek Cypriot concerns by limiting the number of settlers from mainland Turkey permitted to stay on Cyprus, and reducing the size of the Turkish military contingent that would protect the Turkish Cypriot community.
By Andreas Hadipapas in Nicosia, Leyla Boulton in Ankara, Kerin Hope in Athens and Judy Dempsey in Brussels
Turkey accused European leaders of "double standards" yesterday as tempers frayed over Ankara's demand for a date for EU membership talks and efforts intensified to clinch broad agreement on Cyprus.
With a crucial EU summit due on Thursday, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who leads Turkey's governing party, began a round of frantic last-minute diplomacy with the EU's Danish presidency in Copenhagen. Mr Erdogan was then due to fly to Washington for talks with President George Bush, who has been lobbying hard for the EU to start talks with Turkey. The Danish premier, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, is due to fly to Ankara today.
At Thursday's summit in Copenhagen, diplomats hope to reach a deal which will resolve the 28-year-old division of Cyprus and give Turkey a path towards membership. Turkish support for a UN peace plan for Cyprus is central to the talks.
The EU has so far refused to start membership talks with Turkey until the government meets minimum requirements on human rights and democracy. But Mr Erdogan argued that tougher standards were being applied to Ankara than to other nations vying to join the EU. Although Turkey has passed laws banning the death penalty and granting more rights to its Kurdish minority, the EU has noted shortcomings in human rights, including restrictions on freedom of expression, the torture of prisoners and insufficient civilian control over its military.
Yesterday Mr Erdogan pointed to Latvia – one of 10 nations due to be invited to join the EU this week – which still does not give its minority Russian population full rights. He said: "There are one million Russians in Latvia. They are treated as a people without a nationality. The European Union should leave aside the double standards."
His aggressive stance received an equally robust response from Mr Rasmussen, who argued: "What we need to see now are real changes, we need reforms, not only on paper but also in real life."
Pressure from Ankara on the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktash, would transform its standing. One senior EU diplomat described the prospects of a breakthrough as "the best chance we have had in years".
Denmark hopes to win an agreement this week from the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders to negotiate a deal based on a UN proposal allowing Cyprus to accede to the EU as a united island in 2004. The prize for the Turks would be a starting date for talks on membership, which would be an enormous step. Once nations begin such negotiations, history shows that they are eventually invited to accede.
Last week France and Germany called for a review of Turkey's progress on human rights in 2004, with the start of negotiations pencilled in for July 2005. Britain, Italy and Greece favour starting formal talks before the 10 member states join the EU in May 2004.
Yesterday Cyprus became the first candidate country to complete membership talks with the EU, while other applicants signalled they still hoped to squeeze more financial concessions. The EU has promised to admit the Greek-controlled part of Cyprus if there is no agreement on the island.
THE INDEPENDENT
By George Psyllides
THE President of the European Parliament, Pat Cox, yesterday assured the government that Cyprus would join the Union on Thursday without any external veto.
"The decision will be taken on Cyprus with no external veto - and we know how to interpret that - and 'bearing in mind all relevant factors' - and we are now dealing with what that context phrase means," Cox said.
He said President Glafcos Clerides had yesterday briefed him on some of the issues the Greek Cypriot side would like to renegotiate in the United Nations plan.
"The President indicated in headline terms a number of issues that he would like to negotiate on. It is clear that he would like before any settlement to be able to establish the capacity to find an interlocutor in the process," Cox said.
Cox added that Clerides gave him a thorough briefing on the peace process, but declined to comment on whether a deal could be struck before the Copenhagen summit on Thursday.
"My own attitude in politics is never to give up hope," he said.
He added that he wished to see a united Cyprus sign the accession treaty in Athens in April next year.
"The ideal would be for a settlement that would express itself in a single legal international personality joining the EU, but we do not live in heaven.
"The ideal is not always available, but we should try," Cox said.
Speaking later in the day at the Economist Conference in Nicosia, Cox said it was very clear that if there was a comprehensive settlement in Cyprus and an agreement in principle this week, "this would be the optimum condition of your entry to the European Union".
Cox promised that if an agreement was a reached the European Parliament would bring a "very special act of financial solidarity" to deal with the special problems that Cyprus would have to deal with.
"Of course ultimately it's not about money. the European Union was at its inception an act of creative reconciliation and of all acts of creative reconciliation, that facing Cyprus is one of the greatest," he said.
"Cyprus now has the power to gift the European Union with an act of reconciliation that recalls to Europe the very essence of its public purpose."
Cox said that the next five days constituted "five minutes to midnight" for Cyprus. "You may find that if you delay, the chance may be lost," he said.
The EU parliament head also paid tribute to Cyprus` completion of its accession negotiations and to Chief EU negotiator George Vassiliou, calling him the "Michael Schumacher of negotiators".
"You won the gold medal in the accession negotiations," he said. "Now there is another gold medal to be won."
Adriaan van der Meer, Head of Delegation of the European Commission to Cyprus, also addressed the conference: "Having closed the technical part we now hope that the long lasting Cyprus issue may also be settled."
Van der Meer said the Annan plan satisfied EU requirements because it allowed Cyprus to speak with one voice and had adequate provisions for Cyprus to cast a vote in the framework of EU decision-making procedures.
"Our basic position is that the outcome of the settlement will be accommodated in the Treaty of Accession in line with the principles on which the European Union is founded," Van der Meer said. "The UN plan itself indicates the method on how this will be done in the areas of the freedom of capital in order to accommodate the bizonality of the settlement".
He said that the UN plan's approach on the transitional arrangements was based on existing examples inside the acquis, borrowed from previous accessions, for example those of Denmark in 1973 and Finland in 1995.
"It is clear that the citizens in the northern part of Cyprus want both a settlement of the Cyprus issue and at the same time EU membership," Van der Meer added. He said it would be useful, if the international community would now express its willingness to help the Cypriots to deal with the financial consequences of a settlement as regards re-housing for thousands of people. "Cyprus will need strong international support. It is time to make clear commitments," he said referring to a possible EU package for immediate assistance and a catch-up facility for the northern part of the island for the years 2004 to 2006 for the amount of _ 206 million.
CYPRUL MAIL 10/12/2002
By Jean Christou
CYPRUL MAIL 10/12/2002