Greece, Cyprus reject Turkey's call for five-party summit on Cyprus

Exchanges between Greek prime minister George Papandreou and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan are raising some hopes of a new dynamic in negotiations on Cyprus, but Athens and Nicosia have made it clear that they do not accept Ankara’s call for five-party talks on the future of the island.

Cyprus has been divided since the 1974 invasion by Turkey, which continues to maintain a military deployment in the part designated "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" which Ankara is alone in recognizing.

Two factors have given potential impetus to engagements between Athens and Ankara on a number of vexed bilateral issues, including Cyprus – the election of George Papandreou as prime minister, seen as having a track record of making progress when previously foreign minister in negotiations with Turkey; and Ankara’s stated aspirations to EU membership, an issue due for discussion when the European Council meets on December 7 2009.

On October 30, Erdogan wrote to Papandreou with a series of proposals on solving bilateral disputes including Cyprus and the long-standing row about air space in the Aegean.

Media reports said that Papandreou had composed a reply, underlining that he welcomed Ankara’s readiness to solve the problems but, among other things, rejecting the idea of a multilateral summit on Cyprus outside the existing UN-backed process.

Turkish media said earlier that Ankara wanted a summit involving Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, the "Northern Cyprus" state on the future of the island, with some reports saying that Ankara also wanted the United Kingdom to participate.

On November 24, quoting Greek and Turkish media, Bulgarian news agency said that Turkey wanted to arrange a meeting of Greek and Turkish ministers to discuss Cyprus.

Ankara wants referendums to be held in Cyprus in early 2010 and in northern Cyprus before presidential elections there in April 2010, while the negotiations process would continue.

While there had been a positive sign in the October 9 meeting between Erdogan and Papandreou, Greece’s alternate foreign minister Dimitris Droutsas has made clear that Athens wants to see Turkey make genuine progress on a number of reforms if it wants to make progress in its EU hopes.

"(Turkey) must fully respect international law and Greece’s territorial integrity; it must respect human and minority rights; it must protect the rights of the Greek minority in Turkey;
it must respect religious freedoms and protect the Ecumenical Patriarchate rather than obstruct its operation; it must cooperate effectively on tackling illegal migration; it must contribute constructively to the resolution of the Cyprus issue. it must have good neighbourly relations with everyone; it must normalize its relations with the Republic of Cyprus and of course, since we’re talking about December, it must implement the Protocol on the Customs Union vis-a-vis the Republic of Cyprus. At the European Council, we will judge Turkey based on the actions it has taken or not taken – rigorously and objectively. All the options are on the table and no one should take us for granted," Droutsas said in a November 20 interview.

Meanwhile, talks between Greek Cypriot leader Demetris Christofias and northern Cyprus leader Mehmet Ali Talat have involved a review of issues discussed so far and areas of agreement and disagreement, Turkish media said on November 20. Talks between the two are expected to resume in early December.

Christofias has rejected the Turkish proposal for five-party talks, saying that it would mean an effective downgrade of the status of Cyprus at such talks.

Meanwhile, against a background of Cypriots being unable to access their property in the Turkish-occupied north, one of the several key elements of the dispute, the Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus has announced court action because of inability to access and worship at churches and monasteries in the occupied north.