LONDON - One of British weekly magazines wrote in its latest edition that there was a glimmer of hope for peace on Cyprus.
The Economist said that the two presidents on the island might be talking, but there was still a long way to go to resolve one of the world`s most intractable problems.
The weekly said that President Mehmet Ali Talat of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus recently sampled the local ice cream in the southern Cyprus, "aimed at winning the hearts of ordinary folk". For an hour or so, Talat padded around the heart of the city, chatting to locals and a mob of reporters.
"If hopes of a settlement reuniting the island as a loose federation are rising, it is mainly thanks to the election defeat in February of the hardline Greek-Cypriot leader, Tassos Papadopoulos. His successor as president, Demetris Christofias, is not only more moderate, but also from the same leftist camp as Talat. The two men even have old ties through the pan-Cypriot trade-union movement," it said.
The weekly said that the two leaders now wanted to relaunch a peace process that had been stalled for four years.
The Economist said that Greek-Cypriot voters insisted on a unitary state and rejected the whole notion of a bizonal, bicommunal federation, on which all negotiations had been based since the late 1970s. "That is one of many obstacles that Mr Christofias will have to surmount if he is to persuade a majority of his voters to take risks for peace. He and Mr Talat held initial talks in March. High-level negotiations are planned in late June, if 100 or so experts from the two sides can make enough progress on details," it said.
"Some Greek-Cypriots are determined to set aside the rejectionist tactics of Mr Papadopoulos, which have done their image in Europe little good," it said.
Asked whether the recent optimism was justified, the weekly said, "perhaps the greatest cause for hope is that the Greek and Turkish sides do co-operate whenever they can do so in security and to mutual advantage."
"For old lefties like Mr Talat and Mr Christofias, who take the line that their island`s people would get along fine if ultra-nationalists in their respective motherlands would only allow it, this is a resonant, if rather Utopian, call to action," the Economist commented.
(UK-MS)