With the aim of reaching a settlement to the Cyprus issue, TRNC President Rauf Denktas and Greek Cypriot leader, Tassos Papadopoulos, met for the 11^th time today.

In last Friday’s meeting (March 5) it was agreed that by Wednesday’s meeting (March 10) documents would be exchanged regarding the two sides requests and that the give and take process would start on Thursday (March 11). The bargaining process, which will form the basis of the negotiations, will be carried out under four separate headings according to a document prepared by Alvaro de Soto, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative to Cyprus, in line with the requests of the two sides.

Speaking after last Friday’s meeting, President Denktas said Alvaro de Soto had summarized the proposals made by the two sides during the ten days of negotations in four paragraphs and with the exchange of documents this would be completed by Wednesday (March 10) and on Thursday (March 11) the two sides would begin the give and take process. The President said the basis of the give and take process was related to these four paragraphs.

Explaining that in last Friday’s meeting the issue of rehabilitating the refugees and property issues were taken up, President Denktas summarized the Turkish Cypriot side’s proposals and stance on this issue as follows:

"Settling the refugee issue by creating new refugees does not serve human rights, we don’t deny the Greek Cypriot’s rights to property and we stressed this should be settled through compensation. They reject this. They claim that our proposal to preserve bi-zonality is ‘ethnic cleansing’ and against ‘human rights’. We reiterated that rejecting the legal measures taken by the Turkish Cypriot side to end the conflict between the two peoples, to rehabilitate people and ensure the continuation of economic life doesn’t contribute to settling the issue…"

Pointing out that the Turkish Cypriot side requested that derogations, which would prevent the Turkish Cypriot founding state from becoming a mixed state, be included as primary law within EU norms, President Denktas said the Greek Cypriot side continued to reject this proposal.

The President said: "We’re requesting this not from the Greek Cypriots but from the UN and the EU, otherwise all our proposals will remain on paper and have no legal validity".

Stating that the Turkish Cypriot side was examining the written proposals submitted by the Greek Cypriot side on March 4 regarding the transition period, President Denktas said this proposal was similar to the proposal for a unified Germany and the Greek Cypriots were planning to reorganize everything according to their own law after they entered the EU. He added that this situation was one that ignored and disregarded the rights and status of the Turkish Cypriot people.

Pointing out that this approach displayed by the Greek Cypriot side showed it would not be possible to settle everything within the set timeframe, the President said: "If other measures are to be taken into consideration, we will consider these and give the Greek Cypriot side the necessary response".

In his meeting with the representatives of the Joint Vision Group, which consists of the representatives of non-governmental organizations, Prime Minister, Mehmet Ali Talat, pointing out that the referendum result would depend on the outcome of the ongoing Cyprus negotiations, said, a positive outcome might not be achieved in the referendum.

Explaining that the committees dealing with the flag and national anthem would start their studies today (March 8), Prime Minister Talat said the names of the Turkish Cypriot committee members was announced on the requested date, but the Greek Cypriots had still not announced their list. He said De Soto had called this committee to a meeting today (March 8) and the Greek Cypriot side would probably submit their list of names.

Pointing out that the referendum date was still not definite, Prime Minister Talat said when the date was definite the relevant law would be passed in the TRNC Parliament.

Explaining that other than on some small issues conciliation couldn’t be reached, the Prime Minister said the negotiation process was not an easy process and what was important during this process was to settle most of the issues between the two parties and to leave the minimum number of unsettled issues to be taken up by Turkey, Greece and the UN Secretary-General, who would become involved in the process in the last week in March.

Speaking during a meeting with the Executive Committee of the Businessmen Association (ISAD), the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Serdar Denktas, said it was time for the Turkish Cypriot people to see the realities.

Pointing out that it was necessary to explain what the Turkish Cypriot people would be confronted with if a ‘yes’ result was achieved in the simultaneous referenda, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Serdar Denktas, said it was normal for all the Turkish Cypriot side’s requests not to be accepted and in this situation counter measures should be identified because, if the necessary preparations could not be made a difficult process would begin.

Explaining that up until now a give and take process could not be achieved during the Cyprus negotiation process, Serdar Denktas said there was a dialogue problem between the two sides because of the Greek Cypriot side’s approach to the Turkish Cypriot proposals as not respondable.

From an economic point of view talking about the importance of the transition period, Serdar Denktas said this right should be given to the Turkish Cypriot side because, the Greek Cypriot side adapted itself to the EU in seven years, whereas the TRNC economy would immediately find itself in an EU environment, therefore a transition period was vital because the TRNC’s economic system was not ready for this competitive (EU) environment.

Stressing that the aim was to achieve a sustainable and lasting settlement, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Serdar Denktas, said unless the property issue was not reconsidered, the process would be very difficult and this would lead to many problems after a settlement.

According to the results of three separate opinion polls carried out by three different Greek Cypriot dailies in South Cyprus, more than 50 per cent of Greek Cypriots will say ‘no’ to the Annan Plan in the referendum.

The Greek Cypriot daily ‘Fileleftheros’ reported that in an opinion poll carried out by telephone by the RAI Consultants Company on 2-3 March 2004 among 810 people aged 18 years and over on how they would vote in the referendum, 62 per cent of Greek Cypriots said they would vote ‘no’, 24 per cent said ‘yes’ and 13 per cent replied ‘I don’t know’.

Meanwhile, the Greek Cypriot daily ‘Politis’, referring to the opinion poll results carried out by telephone by the Acnielsen Company on 5-6 March 2004 among 604 Greek Cypriots reported that, 53 per cent of Greek Cypriots would vote ‘no’ in the referendum, 19 per cent would vote ‘yes’ and 28 per cent were ‘undecided’.