Nicosia’s Famagusta proposal could be the turning point in fresh efforts to reunite the island, President Anastasiades told the Greek Prime Minister yesterday.
Antonis Samaras, who will meet US President Barack Obama in Washington on Thursday, discussed the Cyprus problem with the President during an extensive telephone call, according to an official announcement.
“Mr Samaras undertook the responsibility to present the positions of President Anastasiades to the American President in view of preparations underway with regard to the resumption soon of (UN-brokered) negotiations,” it said.
“The President of the Republic stressed the importance of the Famagusta proposal which could give the necessary push in fresh efforts for a settlement of the Cyprus problem,” he added.
Nicosia is prepared to unfreeze certain chapters in Turkey’s EU accession talks and allow direct trade to take place by the Turkish Cypriot community. In return, the ghost town of Famagusta should be returned to its lawful Greek Cypriot inhabitants.
Anastasiades, who addressed a peaceful anti-occupation protest by Famagusta refugees at Dherynia checkpoint over the weekend, pledged to push the fresh initiative.
The ghost town could be used as a “substantial confidence-building measure” ahead of the new round of talks which are expected to resume in October, he also said.
Moreover, Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides told state television yesterday that a ‘game change’ is necessary before the stalled peace talks resume in autumn.
Turkey’s acceptance of the proposal would fill the gap that will change the climate and which will create circumstances more appropriate for concrete talks to resume, he also said. “And it would certainly give the interlocutors from both sides a new impetus,” he added.
Kasoulides, who visited Washington in May, had told The Cyprus Daily: “If Turkey means business, as they say, they should realise that a game change is needed. The US acknowledges the validity of our argument.”
“The Famagusta idea “may be an old but a valid idea” because the return of Famagusta to its rightful inhabitants will be the way Greek Cypriots change their mistrust as regards the good intentions of Turkey, he also argued.
Kasoulides, who had a “very good, very sincere” meeting with US State Secretary John Kerry, said that there was a sudden personal interest by Kerry in the eastern Mediterranean.
Cyprus Weekly
