Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Talat and the Deputy Prime
Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Serdar Denktas, who went to Ankara
on March 10, yesterday (March 11) met with Ugur Ziyal, the Undersecretary of
the Turkish Foreign Ministry, officials from the Cyprus Office and the
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Abdullah Gul.
Prime Minister Talat, speaking after the meeting,
pointing out that all the sides had promised not to leave the negotiating
table, said they were all spending efforts towards settling the issue.
Pointing out that it was necessary for the 4-party
negotiations to take place according to a timetable, the Prime Minister said
they had the impression that all issues would be left for the UN
Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, to resolve, but this was neither favoured by
the Turkish Cypriot side nor the Greek Cypriot leader Tassos Papadopoulos.
Prime Minister Talat also said that the Cyprus
negotiations would be completed on March 22 and the 4-party negotiations
would begin on March 24 in Zurich and Bern in Switzerland.
For his part, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for
Foreign Affairs Serdar Denktas, referring to what issues the give and take
process would start with, said, the UN Secretary-General’s Special
Representative to Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, had made preparations on this
issue, but this had not yet been presented to them.
