Cyprus reunification talks show little progress

Last-ditch talks on reunifying Cyprus went into their fourth day today, with little sign of any movement between the Greek and Turkish sides.

“I can’t say that this second phase has advanced to substantive negotiations. There has been an exchange of the positions of the two sides … but there has been no indication of change in Turkish intransigence,” said Yiannakis Omirou, who leads the Greek Cypriot Socialist Party.

A Turkish official blamed the Greek side, saying his negotiators were still working their way through a 44-page set of demands for amendments to the United Nations reunification plan.

“It is impossible to start the give-and-take process with such a document,” he said, adding that the Turkish proposal was less than three pages long.

The prime ministers of Greece and Turkey are expected to join the talks on Sunday or Monday, along with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The talks cannot go on beyond Wednesday.

European Union leaders said yesterday they were ready to ”accommodate” the outcome of the UN-led negotiations on a plan for reunification, provided it complied with EU principles – an important move since the current plan would need a change to basic EU law.

But the talks still face many obstacles, and officials from the four sides - Turkey, Greece and the two Cypriot communities – have yet to meet formally, although they have dined together.

UN envoy Alvaro de Soto has instead depended on shuttle diplomacy, travelling regularly along the snowy roads between hotels in the Swiss mountaintop resort of Buergenstock.

If the negotiators do not agree on the plan by March 31, Annan will finish it himself.

Either way, the proposal will go to separate referenda in each of the communities on April 20. If either side rejects it, Cyprus will not be reunited by the time it joins the EU on May 1, and EU laws will only apply to the Greek Cypriot part of the island.

Cyprus has been split into the Greek Cypriot-controlled south and the occupied north since Turkey invaded in 1974 in the wake of an abortive coup by supporters of union with Greece.

The breakaway state is only recognised by Turkey, which maintains 40,000 troops there.

The United Nations has put forward a plan that would create a federation of two states – one Greek and the other Turkish – with a loose central government.

The biggest problem is whether 180,000 Greek Cypriots who fled or were forced from their homes in the north following the 1974 occupation will be allowed to go back.

The Turkish side wants only a limited return.

The UN has proposed a compromise that would see 100,000 people allowed to go back, but that is still a problem because in the European Union, people have the right to live and own property wherever they like – especially within their own country.