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Turkey, Cyprus Government Call for Resumption of NegotiationsMeanwhile Erdogan told the secretary general that Turkey wanted to use the Annan plan as a "reference point" for the talks, which should be based on the "realities in Cyprus," a term that has been used in the past by the Turkish side to refer to its longstanding demand for recognition of the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and a two-state solution to reunification. Erdogan also told Annan that the limited time The prime minister said the Turkish side would be prepared to have the secretary general "fill in the blanks" in the plan where the two sides failed to reach an agreement, if the Greek side consented to this as well. Papadopoulos said he had appealed to Annan to "immediately call" new talks. "Time is really short. So we must aim at talks that are result-oriented," he stated. The Cyprus president said that the Greek Cypriots were ready "to respond positively to any invitation of the secretary general to a new round of talks on the basis of his plan, in order to achieve a more functional and just solution" to the Cyprus problem. He said the Cyprus government had been "waiting for nine months for some response from the Turkish side and for a change of their fixed attitude, which was that the Annan plan was dead and buried." The Cyprus president said the Greek Cypriots would reject any negotiations outside the framework of the Annan plan and reiterated that they would never agree to a two-state solution to the Cyprus issue. The Greek Cypriots, he said, would continue to support the creation of a decentralized, single-state, two-community federation envisaged by the plan, which would be in conformity with the EU's body of laws, the acquis communautaire. This solution would enable Cyprus to play its full role in the European Union, he noted. Both Greece and the Greek Cypriots have rejected Annan's proposal that dates for the referendums be set before negotiations are completed, stating that they want the talks to conclude before referendums are scheduled. "If the Annan plan is fully completed and agreed on during negotiations, I am ready to sign it," Papadopoulos stated, noting that the plan, as it stands now, is not ready for his signature. During Erdogan's meeting with Annan, the prime minister asked the secretary general to appoint a new mediator for the settlement talks to replace Annan's longtime special assistant for Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, in order to "speed up the solution" of the Cyprus issue. Erdogan said the mediator should be from "an independent, impartial country," one that has "political weight" in the negotiations. He expressed support for the appointment of Secretary of State Colin Powell for the position. Both Annan and Powell rejected the suggestion. Annan noted that, in order to meet the May 1 deadline for the conclusion of the settlement process, an agreement must be reached by the end of March to allow time for referendums in April. In a mid-January letter to Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos, who accepts the Annan plan as a basis for negotiations, Annan stated that the U.N. did not intend to re-engage in the negotiation process until the parties involved showed genuine political will to work for a solution and agreed to put the plan to a referendum. The secretary general's letter was in response to a December 17 letter from Papadopoulos, in which the Cyprus president, who would like to see changes in the plan, said he was ready to return to the negotiating table and asked the secretary general to call for a resumption of the talks. In his letter, Annan also referred to an April 2003 U.N. report in which he asked the two sides to show commitment to finalizing the Annan plan “without negotiating its basic principles or essential trade-offs.”
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