President Mehmet Ali Talat met with leaders and representatives of political parties with seats in the Republic’s Assembly yesterday.

Latest developments on the Cyprus issue and this week’s visit to Cyprus by the UN Secretary General’s Undersecretary for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari were among the topics taken up at the meeting which lasted two hours.

The meeting which took place at the Presidential Palace was attended by the leader of the Republican Turkish Party – Prime Minister Ferdi Sabit Soyer and the party’s Secretary General Omer Kalyoncu, the leader of the main opposition National Unity Party Huseyin Ozgurgun and the party’s Secretary General Turgay Avci, Democrat Party Secretary General Ertugrul Hasipoglu and Kudret Akay and Peace and Democracy Movement’s General Secretary Mehmet Cakici and Ozgun Kutlamýs.

Speaking after the meeting, Prime Minister Soyer stressed that the administration in the South, which became an EU member only one-sidedly, by using this advantage was trying to blackmail Turkey and damage the political equality of Turkish Cypriots. ”This policy of Greek Cypriots will never be tolerated. We want a solution based on the Annan Plan, which is supported by the UN, Security Council, and the EU” he said.

Ertugrul Hasipođlu, who participated the meeting on behalf of Serdar Denktas since he is abroad, stating that the meeting was nice, correct and in a way acted as a national council said the President informed them about the appointment of Girod to Missing Persons Committee and the related developments.

Ertugruloglu pointed out that the Greek Cypriot did not want any type of a solution therefore, the related parties should encourage them.

Huseyin Ozgurgun for his part stated that he conveyed the President the message that his party would make all kinds of contribution to these meetings if they were made regularly. He said : “since it seems that the Greek Cypriot approach of seeing Turkish Cypriots as minority and intransigent stance would continue long, we should act in unity and give a strong voice.”

President Mehmet Ali Talat has said that the Greek Cypriot Side’s insistence of not accepting time limits or arbitration is the main obstacle in the way of the re-start of the negotiations.

President said Monday’s (3 July) meeting on the UN Base in Lefkosa has succeeded in breaking the ice between the leaders of he two sides.

Speaking to Greek Cypriot newspaper Cyprus Mail after his meeting with the Greek Cypriot Leader Tassos Papadopulos, President Talat said `the first step is always the most difficult, and it has now been taken. We shook hands, we broke the ice.” President stressed that the meeting had come about largely through the efforts of the UN.

Asked whether a second meeting will take place between him and the Greek Cypriot Leader during the visit to the island by the UN Secretary General’s Undersecretary for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari, President Talat said he had no objection to taking part in such a meeting and expressed hope and optimism that Mr Papadopulos would reciprocate.

“Mr Papadopulos didn’t object to meeting again but on the condition that it would only happen if Mr Gambari called us” President said, noting that he is optimistic that Gambari will find good reasons to call for a restart of the negotiations that have been on hold since the Greek Cypriot Side rejected the Annan Plan. President Talat added that Gambari might call for “a new phase of preparatory meetings in order to define the subjects for negotiations.”

President Talat said that his greatest worry is that a solution to the Cyprus problem and EU membership of North Cyprus could be put on hold until Turkey joins the block in 2014 at the earliest.

`The problem is the insistence of the Greek Cypriot Side of not accepting time limits or arbitration.  This will become the main obstacle` he said, adding that both forms of limitation were something the Turkish Cypriot Side needed so that talks did not become open-ended or indefinite.

But he also warned that the Greek Cypriot Side should not rest on its laurels in the belief that time was purely on its side.

The President noted that in the course of time, if a positive sign does not come from the Greek Cypriot Side, the international community will think seriously about lifting the international isolation of the Turkish Cypriot people. Such a move by the international community Talat added was not an end in itself for the Turkish Cypriots, but a way of creating leverage that would bring the Greek Cypriot side back to the negotiation table.

“Papadopoulos ought to worry about this, because the present status quo is not sustainable. Imagine if things go on like this, We are establishing all our institutions and economic playing ground. Even now we are developing.” President Talat said.