Turkish plan may revive talks

Press, 15 April 1978, Page 9

Turkish plan may revive talks

Vienna Ihe U.N. Secretary-General (Dr Kurt Wald-; hcim i is due to hold an unscheduled second round of talks with I urkish-Cy priot envoys on fresh proposals to set up a Federal state in Cyprus and gradually withdraw I urkish forces stationed on the island.

Mr Waldheim said after receiving the proposals in, Vienna on Thursday he] would need a day to study’ them before asking for cer-i tain clarifications on the three-part package. If he feels the proposals; are a basis for negotiation,! Dr Waldheim may reconvene inter-communal negotiations | between Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders. The negotiations broke off in April, 197", when the Turkish side threw out a map prepared by the Greek, Cypriots under which the Turks would have given up half the land thev occupied ■iter the 1974 conflict. The new package contains Turkey’s first detailed sug-i

gestions on how to share] .out the territory. Turkish [ ; sources said Ankara wasji ready to pull back its troops ' from a lateral strip of land] separating the two commun-) ities, handing back about 5; per cent of the island to ]the Greek Cypriots. h This falls far short of] | Greek proposals of a year]! ago which demanded that] the Turks — who account; for about 18 per cent of] Cyprus’s population halve) their holdings from 36 per), cent to around 20 per cent. ' In addition to territorial concessions. the package also contains a chapter on constitutional changes and a separate heading for ways of I I letting Greek Cypriots back .

| into parts of Famagusta,! [cordoned off as an empty) I military zone since 1974. j Meanwhile, in Belgrade, | the Turkish Prime Minister ) (Mr Bulent Ecevit) is due to meet the Yugoslav President (Mr .losip Tito) for talks certain to centre on the Cyprus problem and the (Mediterranean, officials said. Mr Ecevit and the 85i year-old Yugoslav leader ] will meet in President Tito’s )hunting lodge at Bugojno, Icenti-al Yugoslavia. The Turkish Prime Minister arrived in Belgrade on Wednesday for an official four-dav visit and called for the creation of a two-region, federated State with two communities in Cyprus.