Talking Peace on Cyprus

After 90-minutes of talks Wednesday the leaders of both sides of the divided island of Cyprus pledged to meet three times a week to work towards a peaceful resolution to almost three decades worth of differences.

The aging leaders of the Greek Cypriot Republic of Cyprus and the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Glafcos Clerides and Rauf Denktash, met Wednesday morning on the United Nations base at the Nicosia Airport. Under international pressure to reach resolution and with EU membership for one half of the island looming, the two leaders agreed on a series of meetings that will begin next week.

"It was a very encouraging start," said Alvaro de Soto, the UN special envoy to the talks.

Denktash, whose northern republic is recognized only by Turkey, said the old adversaries had a "very good, very good meeting," according to wire reports. Clerides who shook hands with Denktash before and after the talks, had no comment.

Diplomats and world leaders have dubbed 2002 the year for solving the Cyprus issue, which has stumped even the most successful international diplomats.

The European Union has announced that the southern two thirds of the island, the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus, will be admitted into the European Union with or without the Turkish northern half.

The two halves have been divided since 1974, when a Greek-inspired coup prompted an invasion by Turkey on the northern half of the island. There are still 35,000 Turkish troops stationed on the northern half of the island, and more than 1,000 United Nations soldiers manning the Green Line, which separates the two halves of the island and splits the capital of Nicosia.

"It can’t be an easy task for a problem pending for so many years, but we have to do our very best," Michaelis Papapetrou, one of three advisers on Clerides’ team, told Reuters.

Threats from Greece, Turkey, the EU

The talks have been shadowed by vague threats by both Greece and Turkey. Greek officials have threatened to block eastern expansion of the European Union if Cyprus is not admitted.

Turkey’s prime minister has threatened to annex the northern third of the island if Cyprus gains EU membership without the northern third of the island.

The threat is a grave one and many on both sides believe it could be a step towards war between NATO partners Greece and Turkey.

The EU Enlargement Commission head Gunther Verheugen has said that if Turkey annexes northern Cyprus, it can forget about joining the union.

"However, this is not the solution we would envisage." Verheugen said in an interview with Deutschlandradio last week. "The clear position of the Commission has already been stated and we are moving forward on the question of Cyprus"

What each side wants

Denktash, who is loyal to Ankara, wants Cyprus to become a two-state federation, with Turkish Cypriots considered equal to their Greek counterparts.

But Clerides, and the United Nations, reject that view. They prefer instead a closely-knit federation that is part of a single state.

Observers and diplomats are hoping the close, if sometimes bitter, relationship between the two can lead to a resolution. Denktash, 77, and Clerides, 81, are said to have sat on the same bench as schoolchildren in Cyprus and each professes to know the other well.

"I know their souls," Denktash said once of his Greek Cypriot counterparts. "I know their souls inside out."

It is perhaps that intimate understanding between the two that has hindered the process.

Both are formidable negotiators and trust each other only up to a certain point.

"Denktash is trying to sell me Raki in a whisky bottle," Clerides said once.

How bad they want it

The elder Greek Cypriot president announced he will not run for re-election again in 2003, leaving many to believe he wants a speedy resolution before heading out the door. Before a milestone meeting last month Clerides said that he hoped the prospect of EU membership would be a "catalyst" in solving the Cyprus issue.

"Denktash is more of a conundrum," one diplomat told Reuters. "He will defend Turkish-Cypriot interests. He’s a winner, a political survivor. Like Clerides he has the ability to sell a settlement to the people."

Public sentiment for peace and reunification on the island continues to grow. On the evening before the talks, Greek and Turkish Cypriots held a candelight vigil on opposing ends of the Ledra Palace checkpoint on the Green line dividing the capital of Nicosia. They chanted peace songs and released doves.

"We want to show and demonstrate our support for these talks and the reunification of Cyprus," said Katy Clerides, the daughter of the Greek Cypriot President.

Relief to families of the missing

Among the issues concerning Cypriots on both sides of the Green line is the status of the more than 2,000 Greek and Turkish Cypriots that went missing during the violence in on the island in the 1960s and 1970s.

The two Cypriot leaders met on the subject of the missing last week. Both were hopeful after the meeting in which they promised to co-operate on a binding document that would resolve the status of the missing. A Cypriot government spokesman said the missing issue was separate from the talks held Wednesday, but both sides have said prospects for a resolution on that issue can infuse hope in future meetings between Clerides and Denktash.

As before, the pair face international pressure for resolution when they gathered Wednesday morning. The U.S. government has also been pressuring Greece and Turkey to push for a peaceful resolution, and President George W. Bush brought it up again when Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis visited Washington last week.