Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06ANKARA4729
2006-08-14 14:52:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Ankara
Cable title:  

TURKISH MFA DAS SEES CYPRUS TECHNICAL TALKS GOING

Tags:  PREL TU CY 
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VZCZCXRO9827
PP RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHAK #4729/01 2261452
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 141452Z AUG 06
FM AMEMBASSY ANKARA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7961
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 1725
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 004729 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/13/2021
TAGS: PREL TU CY
SUBJECT: TURKISH MFA DAS SEES CYPRUS TECHNICAL TALKS GOING
NOWHERE FAST

REF: A. NICOSIA 1367


B. NICOSIA 1345

Classified By: PolCouns Janice G. Weiner, reasons 1.4 (b),(d)
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 004729

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/13/2021
TAGS: PREL TU CY
SUBJECT: TURKISH MFA DAS SEES CYPRUS TECHNICAL TALKS GOING
NOWHERE FAST

REF: A. NICOSIA 1367


B. NICOSIA 1345

Classified By: PolCouns Janice G. Weiner, reasons 1.4 (b),(d)

1.(C) Summary: In an August 11 meeting, a pessimistic
Turkish MFA Cyprus DAS equivalent Levent Bilman told us that
he saw little chance for progress on the island at present,
even on the technical talks. While Bilman is not a
decisionmaker, his views are a barometer of how more senior
MFA officials may be approaching the issue. End summary.

2.(C) According to Bilman, Turkish Cypriot (TC) and Greek
Cypriot (GC) advisers talked three times recently (August 1,
3 and 8) with UN rep Moller; there had been a Talat-Moller
meeting as well. The Papadapolous-Talat meeting had not
occurred as planned on August 10.

3.(C) In Bilman,s view, absent an imposed structure and time
deadlines, little will happen. In the aftermath of the Annan
plan, he said, the GCs had declined third party involvement,
arbitration and "suffocating" deadlines -- all of which he
described as essential for forward movement. Even to get
Talat and Papadopolous to sign the two papers in early July
had taken an intervention from SYG Annan in New York, he
added.

4.(C) The technical committees -- set to discuss ten issues
-- were to begin technical talks, per Bilman, as soon as the
parties had exchanged lists on July 31. They exchanged their
lists: The TC paper stated that there must be a UN solution
and restated the basic parameters (bicommunal, bizonal,
federal). The GC paper, according to Bilman, listed nine
broad areas, similar to what they had presented at
Burgenstock. No technical talks have started, however. The
stalemate, Bilman claimed, resulted from GC insistence that
discussions on substantive issues start simultaneously.
That, he stressed, was not the deal.

5.(C) With respect to Moller, Bilman said the TCs (and Turks)
do not see him as constructive. Rather than moving the
process forward (a la DeSoto, who put to good use creative
diplomacy and the SYG's backing, and even like Gambari during
his latest visit),Bilman characterized Moller as pushing the
TCs unhelpfully to sell GC ideas to Talat. Bilman personally
believes that Moller must go; he has too much baggage.

6.(C) Bilman described Talat as increasingly alienated from
Moller and irritated by the GCs. Talat and the TCs remain
committed to a solution, Bilman stated, but the GC attitude
is helping solidify the status quo. The TCs do not want an
indefinite process; they want a timeline and progress. He
claimed the GOT was not attempting to influence Talat; it was
his game. The GCs, for their part, had proposed examining
the facts on the island and the federal systems of the world.


7.(C) On the issue of "community" versus "side", Bilman
stated emphatically that the TCs had moved past that barrier;
the "community" language was done with in 1975. The TCs are
a side or a party and won't be degraded to the level of
"community" versus the "President of the Republic," he
stated. This language was revived in the Papadapolous/Annan
Paris decree. (Note: The language that so annoyed the Turks
and TCs. End note.)

8.(C) With respect to Famagusta/Varosha, Bilman explained the
context in which it originally had been discussed in
Luxembourg. Talat adviser Pertev had stated at one point
that the GCs could have Varosha if the TCs could open all
ports including Ercan airport. His GC counterpart responded
that to accept such a position would amount to political
suicide.

9.(C) The idea of technical talks, Bilman reiterated, was to
take care of everyday, practical issues on the island; not
get into final settlement issues. When there had been a
murder in the south, the suspect escaped to the north and
Talat had begged for some information so they could jail him.
The response was that the GCs couldn't deliver any
information because they did not recognize the legitimacy of
the "government" in the north; the TCs had to release the
man. With respect to sharing information on avian flu (AI),
the GCs sent a fax message to the Turkish MFA with regard to
AI on Cyprus and declined to discuss the issue with the
"illegal regime". Those are the technical issues, Bilman
said, on which the GCs decline to engage. Instead they
propose that the property issue, which Bilman described as
the core of a Cyprus settlement, be discussed as part of
technical talks.


ANKARA 00004729 002 OF 002


10.(C) Comment: The Turks believe that Moller has had his
chance; they will no longer budge on this. Gambari, per
Bilman, is on vacation until the end of August. The Turks
know it is in their EU accession interest to get a UN process
moving; if is difficult to see the up side for them in
torpedoing technical talks. Whoever said what to whom on the
island, if they can't even get the technical talks up and
running, this is going nowhere fast. We need to find another
angle. End comment.


Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/ankara/

WILSON