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President of Cyprus Dimitris Hristofyas will meet tomorrow with leaders of the Cypriot parties to discuss the proposals of Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat regarding “government management and allocation of powers." 

So far, reactions of the leaders are negative and also because of disagreement with Hristofyas’ policy, the social democrats EDEK withdrew from parliament. At a general meeting of members of EDEK Central Commission, for the withdrawal of the party voted 115 people, eight were against and three abstained.  It is expected that today Agriculture Minister Andreas Polynikis and Minister of Transport Nikos Nikolaidis will withdraw as well. 

The reaction of the Democratic Party, which also is likely to withdraw from the government, is expected with exceptional interest. Its leader Marios Karoyan departed from the position of EDEK and said that the decision of whether to withdraw from the government will be made depending on the elections in 2011 which, although far, will influence their decision now because it will affect the distribution of power then. 

Today President Hristofyas avoided comments regarding Talat’s proposals by only saying that he was not surprised. The leaders of EDEK, Democratic Party, European Party and Party of Environmentalists announced that the proposals are unacceptable and requested the President to change his strategy. According to the press attaché of the Democratic Party Fotis Fotiu the goals and strategy of Turkey are already clear and they strive towards the creation of a confederation. 

In an interview with the Cypriot newspaper "Kathimerini" Mehmet Ali Talat claimed that President Hristofyas failed to escape his obsession to impose deadlines for resolving the issue because of "bitter experiences of the past” and as a result both countries have demonstrated no progress. However, he stated that during the meetings some progress has been made and with little more effort they will be able to reach agreement on various issues. Mr. Talat said that the proposals by Turkish Cypriots are "demonized" and clarified that they are not formed as "take it or leave it" but are subject to negotiation. 

Mehmet Ali Talat, spoke at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels and made a proposal to relocate the site of negotiations for the settlement of the Cyprus issue on "neutral territory" outside Cyprus and outside the EU, so that the two leaders can speak without being influenced by internal political pressures. The new federal state will have one “face” in the international arena, said Talat, noting that: “sometimes I am criticized for my goal being to create a confederation, but this is not true." 

Further in his speech Talat said that the two countries are not equal in the negotiations because the Cypriot Greeks are a member of the EU and the UN and therefore “are not in a hurry to find a solution”, unlike Turkish Cypriots, who due to their international isolation "have a greater need than to find a solution and have thus requested to speed up negotiations.”