Cyprus Peace Talks End at U.N. Without Success or New Date

Four days of talks between the Greek and Turkish leaders of the divided island of Cyprus broke down Sunday with bitter recriminations and with only a slim hope of a new meeting next month.

Rauf Denktash, president of the Turkish Federated Republic of Northern Cyprus, told a news conference that he came prepared to sign an agreement worked out in five months of preliminary meetings conducted by U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar. However, Denktash said Greek Cypriot President Spyros Kyprianou “raised fundamental objections to each and every paragraph of the draft.”

Kyprianou, at a subsequent news conference, accused the Turkish Cypriots of trying to push him into an agreement and insisted that what was before Denktash and him was only an “agenda.” He denied that he ever intended to sign anything at these talks, their first face-to-face session since 1979, despite assurances last week by the Turkish ambassador that an agreement would be concluded here.

Perez de Cuellar stood somewhere between the two adversaries’ positions. In a statement, he acknowledged that the Turkish Cypriot side “fully accepts the draft agreement.” The Greek side, he said, “accepts the documentation presented by the secretary general as a basis for negotiations.”

Still, Perez de Cuellar insisted, “the gap has never been so narrow.” He said he will remain in touch with both communities’ leaders with a view toward another meeting--”if possible before the end of February.”

Denktash immediately objected to an early date, saying he must prepare for elections in the Mediterranean island’s Turkish sector and that he must weigh the “new political situation” created by the breakdown of the talks.

He also discounted Perez de Cuellar’s hope that negotiations could be resumed at the same point where Sunday’s consultations ended. If Kyprianou wants to renegotiate, he said, it must be from a clean slate and not with the concessions recently made by Turkey.

Asked why Kyprianou refused any commitments, Denktash blamed Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, who he said is against settling the Cyprus dispute.