“No to timetables, yes to constructive proposals for Cyprus”

A few hours after the meeting between Prime Minister Giorgos Papandreou and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, government sources said that Greece will not accept timetables on Cyprus.

The previous day Clinton had visited Turkey and in a joint press conference with foreign minister Ahmed Davutoglu, showed her sympathy for the Turkish side on the issue of schedules, stating: “We want a federation with two communities and two zones, as soon as possible.”

However, the Greek side stated they will not accept “timetables and arbitrations”, and that they expect a constructive proposal from Turkey, which up to now has not been given. The issue of pressing deadlines has been put forth by Davutoglu with June 2012 as the deadline, when Cyprus will assume the Presidency of the EU.

Specifically, in his statements last Wednesday, the Turkish Foreign minister said that if the Republic of Cyprus assumed the EU presidency without having resolved the Cyprus dispute, then “Turkey - Europe relations would freeze.”

And he pointed out that there is no chance of Turkey accepting the Republic of Cyprus as its interlocutor. Cyprus assumes the presidency in the second half of 2012 so, according to the Turkish foreign minister, the dispute must be resolved by then.

Nevertheless, Athens insisted it will not accept “sudden solutions”, while Greek governmental sources predicted chances of acts of good will from the Turkish side, which would be evaluated.