Greek Cypriot press hails relaunch of reunification talks

Greek Cypriot papers from across the political spectrum hailed as a breakthrough Friday's agreement by the two communities’ leaders to begin fully fledged peace talks in June and reopen a landmark street in the heart of divided Nicosia.

"Forward step after first meeting," the right-wing Simerini daily said of the talks between Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat and his Greek Cypriot counterpart Demetris Christofias who was elected last month on a pledge to launch a renewed peace drive. The Haravghi newspaper of Christofias’s communist AKEL party hailed a "new dynamic" in the peace process. Even the nationalist daily Machi welcomed a "whiff of spring" in the reunification process.

An editorial in the independent Politis newspaper hailed the new momentum in peace process after four years in which reunification efforts had gone nowhere under Christofias’s hardline predecessor Tassos Papadopoulos. "The two leaders broke the ice and showed they could overcome the veil of suspicion and speak together for a Cyprus solution... rejecting the permanence of negative politics," it said. "Obviously the Cyprus problem wasn’t solved... and the difficulties start now... but there is momentum and that’s important," it added.

Turkish Cypriot newspapers voiced more caution, worrying that hopes of ending the islands three-decade division might be dashed again as they were in 2004 when Padadopoulos led Greek Cypriot voters in rejecting a UN reunification plan that was overwhelmingly approved by Turkish Cypriots. "Will the Turkish Cypriots come to the brink of solution and be left empty-handed again?" fretted the Kibrisli daily. "Pumping too much optimism is unnecessary and harmful," it warned.

Basaran Duzgun, columnist in the biggest selling Turkish Cypriot newspaper Kibris, welcomed the new atmosphere between the two communities but worried that Turkish Cypriots would face pressure to agree to a less favourable deal than the plan drawn up by then UN chief Kofi Annan in 2004. "A new era is beginning in Cyprus... in which the disappointment in the Annan plan process will be overcome and new hopes for a settlement will flourish," he wrote. He warned, however, that "Turkish Cypriots will come under more pressure to make concessions in the negotiation process" to woo Greek Cypriot voters at an eventual referendum.

In a show of goodwill, Talat and Christofias agreed -- as soon as technically possible -- to reopen Ledra Street running through the heart of Europe’s last divided capital to help underpin the peace drive.

The Greek Cypriot daily Alithia said the Ledra deal was the product of a climate of "give and take" between the two men. Talat acceded to Christofias’s demands for three months of preparatory work by committees before talks resume in earnest, while Christofias offered Ledra Street, the newspaper said.
"Both men came out winners, as one offered support to the other. They cemented the peace on Ledra," it said.

The Turkish Cypriot Kibrisli daily described the Ledra deal as "an umbrella of hope being opened over the talks" and urged both sides to stick to the spirit of reconciliation. "It appears that (the two leaders) did all that is necessary to... rid the negotiation process of a cold war climate. It remains to be seen how much they will adhere to that in the coming days," it said.