ANKARA - Alvaro De Soto, U.N. Secretary General's special envoy for Cyprus came to Ankara on Monday.
Speaking at Esenboga Airport, De Soto said that he came to Ankara to hold consultations with Turkish government officials.
Upon a question asking if the winning of the election in Greek Cypriot side by Tassos Papadopoulos would affect Cyprus process, De Soto said that he met with both Glafcos Clerides and Papadopoulos this morning. Recalling that Papadopoulos would take over the mission of carrying out Cyprus talks from Clerides, De Soto said that Papadopoulos told him that he would start the talks with a positive spirit.
De Soto said that ''Papadopoulos told me that he would be ready to participate in talks in few days, because he also does not want the talks to be interrupted. He is aware of the time limitation.'' De Soto also referred to the importance of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's visits to Athens and Ankara next week.
Upon a question asking his view about criticisms of TRNC President Denktas who said that De Soto put pressure on the sides during the talks, De Soto said that ''I don't want to make comment without knowing fully what Denktas said, but I suppose he exaggerates my power a little bit.'' De Soto stressed that negotiations had to be resulted until Feb. 28 for 'united Cyprus' to join the EU on April 16. When reminded about the statements of Papadopoulos who said that ''I am the president of whole Cyprus,'' De Soto said that ''we meet with him as the leader of the Greek Cypriot side and with Denktas as the Turkish Cypriot leader.''
De Soto will meet with Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Ugur Ziyal in Foreign Ministry.