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After all the meeting took place!

16 April 2009 / 09:04:09  GRReporter
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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accepted the leader of the Cyprian Turks in Washington yesterday, as it can be seen on the official photo, which was distributed by the State Department. Despite the arguments and the prognosis that this meeting will not take place, it did take place late last night at 10:30pm Greek time. The meeting was planned for the end of March but after a massive attack of the Greek lobby in the US it was rescheduled with two weeks. “The United States recognizes only the government of the Republic of Cyprus but we are keeping close contacts with the Cyprian Turks as a way to help solving the Cyprian problem,” said the spokesman of the State Department Robert Wood.


This is the second visit of Mehmed Ali Talat in the State Department. The first one was in 2004, when the former Secretary of State Colin Powell accepted Talat in his capacity of Prime Minister of Northern Cyprus. Back then, the meeting provoked resentment among the media. Yesterday, Clinton used the title “leader of the Cyprian Turks.” On Monday, the Secretary of State will accept the Cyprian foreign minister Markos Kiprianou.


Meanwhile, the UN called for the Cyprian Greeks and Cyprian Turks to be more flexible and to find a compromise regarding uniting the island. In an interview for Reuters, the special envoy of the organization Alexander Downer said that failure in negotiations would mean a dark future for Cyprus. “The countries have made progress but they need to keep negotiating. It would be a mistake to put a deadline, because its end will cause a crisis. On the other hand, negotiations should not be prolonged too because the more time passes by the harder it gets to make a decision,” said Downer.


The diplomat, who is also former foreign minister of Australia, reminds the Annan plan, which was approved by the Cyprian Turks in 2004 but was rejected by the Cyprian Greeks. He believes that this was a lost great opportunity for uniting the island. “How many opportunities like that will history give?” asks rhetorically Alexander Downer.


 

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