NICOSIA, April 9 (Xinhua) -- A high-pitch rhetoric between the leaders of the estranged Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities of Cyprus on Tuesday has added weight to statements that there are "very serious difficulties" in efforts to resume the negotiations aimed at ending the division of the eastern Mediterranean island.
Just two days after a visit by Jane Holl Lute, the envoy of the UN Secretary General, in a bid to draft the terms of reference for new negotiations, chief Greek Cypriot negotiator Andreas Mavroyiannis said that he did not expect the Secretary General to be able to announce a resumption of negotiations in an upcoming report on Cyprus.
He told journalists at a news briefing that the Turkish side has been dragging its feet on resuming negotiations.
He further said that Turkish Cypriots additionally raised preconditions to consent to new negotiations, including a 50:50 share of the government, a short and fixed time limit for the negotiations to be concluded, and an agreement beforehand what the status of the Turkish Cypriot would be in case of a collapse of the negotiations.
Mavroyiannis said that though the issue of political equality had been agreed upon a long time ago, the Turkish Cypriot side has backtracked and been demanding that government decisions on all issues be made jointly by Greek Cypriots, making up 80 percent of the population and the Turkish Cypriots, who account for 20 percent of the population.
Shortly after Mavroyiannis' remarks, Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci issued a written statement, saying that "political equality and effective participation in decision making is vital for us".
Akinci said it was "inhumane and unacceptable" for the Turkish Cypriot side to continue to be punished by being kept in isolation of the rest of the world.
The Turkish Cypriot community has been living in seclusion in the northern part of Cyprus which has been under the control of Turkish troops since 1974. Turkey declared the area into a so-called state.
UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has been called on by the Security Council to submit a report by April 15 to inform it on the outcome of efforts to resume the long-stalled Cyprus peace negotiations.
