Turkish Cypriot daily Kibris (17.06.11) reports that Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu has accused the Greek Cypriot side of starting to back down on some points where agreement had been reached on the issue of the “internal security”. In statements yesterday after returning from his meeting with President Christofias in the buffer zone within the framework of the Cyprus talks, Eroglu argued that if the back down on agreed issues continues, it will not be possible to reach an agreement.

Eroglu said that the meeting yesterday lasted for one hour and they discussed their July meeting in Geneva. He noted that Alexander Downer, UN Secretary-General’s Special Advisor for Cyprus, conveyed some issues to the sides and afterwards they discussed the chapter of Governance and Power Sharing. He said they listened to President Christofias’ views and expressed their counter views. He noted that they asked in writing the views which President Christofias expressed yesterday on Governance and Power Sharing. Eroglu said that the representatives of the leaders will meet today in an effort to increase convergences on the issue of internal security and powering sharing.

“If we cannot reach an agreement on the main issues, it will be meaningless to agree on the details”, Eroglu argued and added that, at first, they accept Downer’s view that intensified negotiations on the core issues should be carried out after the Geneva meeting in an effort to reach an agreement. He said, however, that there is no decision on the form of this process.

Eroglu claimed that President Christofias seems to have some hesitations on this issue, but after the Geneva summit they will start searching whether the intensified negotiations will be carried out three or five times a week. Eroglu said that after the elections in Turkey, they do not consider a different negotiating process for the period following the Geneva summit. He noted that the change in the negotiations might be the intensification of the process.