World

Cyprus: Sides Agree To Talk

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

November 13, 1999 / 10:59 AM EST / CBS

In a sign of warming relations between Turkey and Greece, Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash said Monday he would attend U.N.-sponsored talks with his arch-rival, Greek Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides, reversing an earlier decision not to go.

On Sunday Denktash first said he would attend the talks, which have been touted by President Clinton and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan as a breakthrough in the decades-old Cyprus dispute.

He later said he would not go because the format of the talks had been changed, and because of the wording of the announcement from the U.N.

The Turkish Cypriot news agency TAK said Denktash then changed his mind again and decided he would attend the talks in New York on December 3, after Annan restored the announcement of the meeting to its original format.

Â"Due to our insistence and the powerful support of Turkey, the announcement was returned to its original, previously agreed form,Â" the agency quoted him as saying.

In a statement released by the White House Monday, President Clinton said the talks Â"will focus on the substantive issues that divide the parties. The United States will work closely with the Secretary General to ensure that the talks are productive.Â"

Â"The Cyprus problem has been with us for far too long,Â" Mr. Clinton said. Â"It will not be resolved overnight. But today we have new hope.Â"

Cyprus has been divided between rival ethnic Turkish and Greek Cypriot communities since 1974, when Turkey invaded the northern third of the island in response to an Athens-backed Greek Cypriot coup aimed at merging the island with Greece.

The dispute has played a prominent role in long-simmering tensions between Turkey and Greece, which began to ebb with the exchange of rescue teams in earthquakes that struck both countries over the last three months.

Denktash heads a self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC), recognized only by Turkey, while Clerides's Greek Cypriot government in the south is acknowledged internationally as having sovereignty over the whole island.

White House officials have said the agreement to talk was one of the biggest goals Mr. Clinton had set for his 10-European trip.

Multiple international efforts to try to reunite the island on the basis of a bi-communal, bi-zonal federation have failed.

Denktash's apparent acceptance of a role in the talks could be seen as a sign of softening on his part. He previously rejected attending talks on Cyprus unless he was acknowledged as a head of state equal to Clerides.