Cyprus Mail: Press Review in English, 98-08-19

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From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cynews.com/>

Wednesday, August 19, 1998

Little hope placed in Miller mission

THE PAPERS continued to focus on US envoy Thomas Miller's visit to Ankara, with coverage also being given to the Greek side's possible stance regarding a moratorium on military flights over Cyprus.

Alithia said Ankara had made its position clear, confirming the bleak diplomatic forecasts, before Turkish officials had even met Miller. The minister responsible for Cyprus, Sukru Gurel, said Turkey would not accept any deal on the Russian S-300 missiles due to be delivered to the island this year.

Regardless of Ankara's stance, Athens and Nicosia would decide their own position at the Clerides-Simitis meeting later this month, the paper said. The aim would be to prevent the Cyprus problem being viewed as a purely military issue, which was Turkey's objective and to which end it was exploiting the missile dispute. Both agree that the problem should once again be seen as a political issue.

Phileleftheros said everything would depend on the results of Miller's meetings in Ankara today. The Cyprus government was not putting too much faith in these meetings as its priorities were an overall settlement and the EU accession course.

Responding to reports that delivery of the missiles might be postponed, the government said its objective was the complete demilitarisation of Cyprus. It declined to say whether it agreed with the positions expressed by Miller, the paper said.

Simerini said Nicosia and Athens would agree to a substantive dialogue with Ankara only if Turkey was prepared to discuss the creation of a flight exclusion zone over Cyprus, guaranteed by the UN Security Council, as in the case of Iraq.

Such a dialogue would be a first step towards complete demilitarisation of the island. It would defuse tension and pave the way for the cancellation of the missile deployment. Turkey's stance on the issue remained negative.

Haravghi quoted Defence Minister Yiannakis Omirou as saying that the Turkish occupation troops in the north were in offensive formations. Moreover, some 50 tanks had been transferred to the north as well as new artillery.

It was ironic that at a time when the US was concentrating all its efforts on cancelling the missile deployment, Turkey was upgrading its defence capabilities in the north, the paper said.

Machi reported that exhumation of the remains of men killed during the invasion would start at the end of next month. Two Red Cross experts would arrive in Cyprus to help the authorities. DNA testing of the remains would be carried out.

The attempt by two women, both of whose husbands have been missing since the invasion, to dig up two graves at the Lakatamia military cemetery, broke the law, the paper said. It said the women had been prompted to do this by others.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1998

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