BY ASLI AYDINTASBAS
SABAH- Not only Lefkosha, but also Washington and Ankara were busy wrangling over Cyprus this weekend. The main issue was Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktas’s recent refusal to attend the next round of talks, protesting the lack of progress so far towards a settlement and the failure of the United Nations to take his demands into account. Washington sent a message to Ankara over the weekend, accusing the Turkish press of distorting the facts by painting Denktas as a ‘productive’ negotiator, which the US says is the opposite of the truth. In other words, the US believes that Denktas’s refusal to travel to Switzerland was no loss, but on the contrary a boon to the talks. ‘Will Ankara allow Denktas to paralyze this critical process?’ one high-level US official asked me. Washington isn’t worried about Denktas’s latest move. In truth, it was exactly what the Bush administration expected from him. However, the Americans believe that the Turkish Cypriots will support an Ankara-backed agreement regardless of Denktas. To Washington, the most important question is whether Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister Serdar Denktas is going to show up in Switzerland. ‘He’s like Hamlet, torn between his own father and the future of his country,’ said one US diplomat. According to the rumor mill, he’s still undecided. While the US administration thinks that the parties will manage to reach a settlement in Switzerland, some believe this overly optimistic. The UN currently has the main points of a permanent settlement. Security problems seem to have been overcome. However, everybody knows that the Greek side has been coy about its own position in the talks, and in so doing making them more difficult for all involved. Both Washington and the US are worried that the Greek side might refuse to hold a referendum on a possible agreement. As we are entering another critical week, everything depends on what the participants’ attitudes will be. Each has a unique historic role. Let’s wait for the final scene...