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Bush Sets Agenda for Talks on the Divided Island

Andreas Hajipapas writes from Nicosia
***The stage is now set for new high-level talks on Cyprus. Some call the peace conference proposed by George Bush a kind of Camp David summit, since any discussions would be held in the US. The meeting would be under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General, who has been dealing with this intractable issue for many years. But many things still remain to be thrashed out before the reconciliation talks begin.***
THE personal involvement of US President George Bush in efforts to end the division of Cyprus has been received with some satisfaction, even awe. But new world order or not. there arc serious issues to be resolved before even Bush can get both sides to the table.
The problems of Cyprus are • rooted in long-standing enmity between the 120,000 Muslim Turkish minority and the majority Greek population (about 570.000) who are Christian.
The island has been divided since 1974 when Turkey invaded in the wake of a shortlived coup engineered by the military junta in Greece. The coup toppled Cypriot President Archbishop Makarios and Turkey claimed it had to move in to protect the Turkish minority.
Some 180.000 Greeks fled south and 60,000 Turks moved north after the invasion. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognised only by Ankara, has been set up in the 37 per cent part of the island seized and still held by Turkish troops.
Issues khat have to be resolved if the meeting with President Bush is to take place include the number of participants and their status. In addition to Prime Minister Mits-otakis of Greece and President Ozal of Turkey, leaders of the two communities on the island, George Vassiliou and Rauf Denktash, must attend.
Vassiliou. a Greek Cypriot, is President of the internationally -recognised government of the Cyprus Republic, though not accepted as such by the Turks.
Denktash, for many years leader of the Turkish Cypriots and head of the sclf-pro-
claimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, wants to be accorded the same status as Vassiliou.
The Turks would like the meeting to Involve only the four leaders. The Greeks want to include the five permanent members of the security
Council. This proposal is resisted by the Turks since ft might lead to pressure on Turkey lo comply with repeated UN resolutions demanding the withdrawal of sonic 35,000 Turkish troops and 50,000 mainland Turkish settlers now in northern
Cyprus.
The proposed conference follows on the surprise an-nounccmcnt by Bush on August 2 that the leaders of Greece and Turkey had agreed to attend peace talks. Bush had visited Athens and Ankara in July during which he made repealed references lo the need for a Cyprus settlement.
In Athens, he urged Greece and Turkey (both NATO allies but with biller disputes over the Aegean as well as Cyprus) lo help heal the "deep wound" that divides them. He said the US would be ready to act as a catalyst to help them settle the Cyprus problems this year.
UN sponsored talks between Vassiliou and Denktash about possible reunification in a bi zonal federation have broken down and remain deadlocked since Jantkaiy 1989.
Since then, UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar has been trying to work out a formula lo bring the two sides together in order to conclude an "outline agreement" setting out the main provisions of a settlement.
Denktash says progress can only be made if Greek Cypriots recognise his community, which forms 18 per cent of the population, as politically ’ equal
But the main sticking point is how much land the Turks would be prepared to cede.
US officials hinted they had
discussed with the Turks the possibility of reducing Turkish-held territory to around 25-30 per cent- More specific reports speak of the Turkish zone being around 27.6 per cent.
Equally important is the number of Greek Cypriot refugees that would then have the right to return to their homes. Vassiliou himself is counted among the refugees, having fled south Prom Faniig-usta after the invasion.
People from picturesque Kyrenia in the north and clrtrus-rich Morphou in the northwest, would never agree to settlement that did not allow them to move back. Any settlement plan would have to be put to a referendum.
The Turks have not yet made specific offers on territory. They say any concessions on land must form part of a package. And they have a series of counter-demands that the Greeks find very difficult to accept.
They insist on "full equality." not just sharing power but also equal representation in the projected federal government and legislature. In addition they want a presidency rotating between Greek and Turk and strengthened guarantees from Turkey.
The Turkish Cypriots say they will feel secure only if Turkey maintains the right to
intervene unilaterally tn Cyprus. Greek Cypriots countei that Cyprus should be com , plclely demilitarised anc placed under UN police su* ’ pervision with guarantees fron the Security Council.
A UN peace force has been on the island since 1964 when the first trouble broke out. Now the UN troops patrol a buffer zone dividing the island.
The UN Secretary-General has welcomed Bush's initiative He repeated thal the two sides tn Cyprus must be broughl "within agreement range" before the proposed meeting in the US takes place.
Two senior UN officials, Oscar Camilion and Gustava . Feissel, who have been dealing with the Cyprus issue, planner a second round of consultations in Ankara, Athens and Nicosia in the second part o August, to try to do just that The UN Secretary-General wil report to the Security Counci by August 30.
Meanwhile Nelson Lcdksy, special co-ordinator on Cyprus at the US State department, who also held talks in the three capitals, dismissed suggestions from Turkish and Turkish Cypriot officials that a meeting In September was "too early" and that more time would be needed for adequate preparations for the peace conference.
"A September meeting is realistic and can be achieved," he said. But he also called for hard work and sincere effort, saying he believed differences were "bridgeable."
— GEMINI NEWS
ANDREAS IIADJ1PAPAS Is news editor al the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation and also a newspaper publisher.