S/PV.2257 Security Council

I should like to recall that, in the course of this morning’s consultations, the members of the Council agreed that the Council would extend an invitation to Mr. Nail Atalay under rule 39 of the provisional rules of procedure. If I hear no objection, I shall take it that the Council decides to invite Mr. Atalay under that rule. Provisional agenda (S/Agenda/2257) 1. Adoption of the agenda It was so decided. 2. The situation in Cy$rus Report by the Secretary-General on the United Nations operation in Cyprus (S/14275 and Add. 1)

Members of the Council have before them the report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations operation in Cyprus for the period 1 June to 30 November 1980 [S/14275 and Add.21. Members also have before them the text of a draft resolution [S/14293] which has been prepared in the course of consultations. The meeting was called to order at II .lO a.m. Expression of thanks to the retiring President 5. It is my understanding that the Council is ready to proceed to the vote on the draft resolution. Unless I hear any objection, I shall put it to the vote.

Before proceeding with the business for this meeting, I should like, on behalf of the Council, to pay a tribute to the President of the Council for the month of November, Sir Anthony Parsons, representative of the United Kingdom, for the great distinction and high diplomatic skill with which he presided over the work of the Council during the month of November. A vote was taken by show of hands. The draft resolution was adopted by I4 votes to none (resolution 482 (1980)). One member (China) did not participate in the voting. Adoption of the agenda

I now kcall on the Secretary- General, who wishes to make a statement. The agenda was adopted. The situation in Cyprus: Report by the Secretary-General on the United Nations operation in Cyprus (S/l4275 and Add.1)

I have noted the action just taken by the Council in extending the mandate of the United Nations Peace-keeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) for another six months. The Force will therefore continue to carry out its indispensable function of helping to maintain calm in the island and creating the conditions in which the search for a peaceful settlement can best be pursued. As previously indicated, I plan to achieve certain economies in this regard, and to this end I shall need all the co-operation of the parties concerned and of the troop contributors.

I should like to inform the members of the Council that I have received letters from the representatives of Cyprus, Greece and Turkey, in which they request to be invited to participate in the discussion of the item on the agenda. In accordance with the usual practice, I propose, with the consent of the Council, to invite those representatives to participate in the discussion, without the right to vote, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Charter and rule 37 of the provisional rules of procedure. 8. The Council has also requested me to continue my mission of good offlces. In my recent report to the 9. It is my intention, as part of the exercise of my good offices, to continue to maintain direct personal contact with the parties from time to time, with a view to reviewing periodically the progress of the talks and, as appropriate, exploring procedures that might facilitate the conduct of the negotiations. 10. I should like to express here my thanks to Mr. Hugo Gobbi, my Special Representative in Cyprus, for the dynamism and devotion with which he has carried out his responsibilities over the past few months. I also wish to thank once again the Govemments who are making available the contingents of the Force, as well as the financial contributors who make possible the continuation of this operation.

The first speaker is the representative of Cyprus, on whom I now call.

I should like at the outset to extend to you, Mr. President, the heartfelt congratulations of my delegation on your assumption of the presidency of the Council for the month of December. Your well-known diplomatic skills and qualities have won the respect of all delegations and we have no doubt that the Council, under your able guidance, will discharge its very important functions successfully. 13. The excellent relations that my country enjoys with your country and the contribution of your country, along with that of other friendly countries, to the quest for a peaceful settlement of the Cyprus problem, as well as your country’s continuous humanitarian assistance to alleviate the plight of our refugees, are for us matters of the utmost importance. 14. The very successful manner in which you conducted the negotiations that led to the adoption of resolution 482 (1980) is also greatly appreciated. 15. I should like, similarly, to pay a tribute to the Council President for the month of November, the representative of the United Kingdom. 16. I should also like to thank you, Mr. President, and through you all the members of the Council not only for affording me the opportunity to address the Council, but also for renewing, with the consent of my Government, the mandate of UNFICYP, whose presence remains’ absolutely necessary for the maintenance of conditions conducive to the finding of a settlement of the Cyprus question. 18. By now the third cycle of the talks has been completed and perhaps the greatest achievement has been the fact that a constructive and cordial atmosphere has prevailed throughout all cycles. One could only hope that such an atmosphere, so necessary in the circumstances, also augurs well for their successful conclusion, because the undeniable fact remains. that the chasm between the two parties remains as deep and as wide as it was at the beginning of the resumed talks. 19. The dialogue has until now been limited mostly to reiteration of positions and there has been no tangible progress on important matters of substance, although there have been limited indications of possible agreement in equally limited areas. 20. We are well aware of the fact that the intercommunal talks might prove to be a painstaking and protracted process and thus we have had to arm ourselves with a large stock of patience and good will, but even patience has its limits. 21. My Government has time and again declared that we shall do nothing that might directly and adversely affect the ongoing negotiating process. Consequently, we have decided to postpone the consideration of item 23, “Question of Cyprus**, by the General Assembly until its next session, that is, the thirty-sixth session, and yesterday, in fact, the Assembly adopted a decision in this regard.’ 22. One would certainly agree with the statement of the Secretary-General in paragraph 52 of his report that “the interlocutors will no -doubt have to face at some point . . . the difficult issue of how and where to start the actual give-and-take which is the essence of an effective negotiating process.” On the other hand one-and this, I presume, includes the Council-should not lose sight of the fact that until now all the “taking”, mostly in 1974, has been from us and any “giving” has also, thereafter, been by us, and as with everything else there are pragmatic constraints even on giving and taking. 23. Before concluding this part of my statement, I should like to reiterate that it is our intention to work constantly and consistently towards the desired goal of arriving, through the negotiating process, at a satisfactory conclusion of the intercommunal talks based on the high-level agreements, including the priorities spelled out therein, United Nations resolutions and in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter. 25. Particularly as regards the missing persons, I should say that we are encouraged both by the unceasing efforts ofthe Secretary-General here in New York, in Nicosia and elsewhere to establish the investigatory body for the tracing of and accounting for these missing persons in accordance with the relevant United Nations resolution and by other efforts in Geneva by the competent group of the Commission on Human Rights, efforts which may soon prove to be quite effective in certain directions. 26. In concluding, I should like very much to express once again to the Secretary-General our thanks and appreciation for his continued and dedicated efforts. to arrive at a satisfactory solution of all the aspects of the Cyprus problem. Our thanks should also go to all his distinguished collaborators-Messrs. Urquhart, Perez de Cuellar, Gobbi, Sherry, Gorge, Picco and Silva-who have also done so much in the right direction. 34. My delegation has so often stated its position as regards what is known as the Cyprus problem that it would be almost superlluous to repeat our views. The essence of the problem consists in applying the fundamental principles of the Charter, which have been reaffirmed in a long series of resolutions of both the General Assembly and the Security Council. All those resolutions stress the need to respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity, constitutionalunity and nonalignment of the Republic of Cyprus and ask for the withdrawal of all foreign occupying troops, as well as for the return of all the refugees to their homes. These principles are so evident and universally accepted that it is indeed surprising that they have not been impiemented so far. Let us hope that, as I already said, the present talks between the two communities, under the auspices of the Secretary-General, will lead to this desirable end in a not too distant future. 27. Appreciation is also due to the Commander and to the officers and men of the Force for discharging their duties in an exemplary manner. 28. Last, but not least, I should like to thank the troop-contributing countries which not only provide contingents for UNFICYP, but also shoulder a disproportionate part of the costs thereof. My meeting with the representatives of these countries only yesterday on matters of common concern afforded me yet another opportunity to express our gratitude to them. 29. A final word of thanks should go to all countries that contribute to the UNFICYP Special Account. 30. Let us all hope that when we meet in six months’ time I shall have much more on the positive side to report. Ail that is needed is the political will to compromise and to rectify the illegalities of the immediate past. 35. By the same token I should like to reiterate our concern over the fact that it has not been possible so far, because of the lack of co-operation of one of the parties, to shed light on the fate of some 2,000 missing persons in Cyprus, a number of whom are of Greek nationality. . 3 1. The PRESIDENT: The next speaker is the representative of Greece, on whom I now call. 36. As on previous occasions, my delegation feels in duty bound to express its deep and grateful appreciation to all those who, in whatever capacity, work towards an equitable solution of the problem and towards maintaining peace and calm on the unfortunate island of Cyprus. The Secretary-General has spared no effort in pursuing this noble task. He is assisted by very experienced and dedicated collaborators-the Under-Secretaries-General, Mr. Perez de Cuellar and Mr. Brian Urquhart and their able

I should like to begin my statement by offering you, Mr. President, my sincerest congratulations on your assumption of the presidency of the Council for the month of December. Our congratulations also go to the retiring President, Sir Anthony Parsons. Finally, I should like to thank you and through you the other members of the Council, for giving me the opportunity to participate in the present debate. . .- _-- Force on the island should not be considered a substitute for such a settlement. 37. As another year of international tensions and turmoil is about to end, and as the agenda of the United Nations becomes more and more encumbered with urgent and difftcult issues, it is devoutly to be wished that one of the oldest problems of the post-war . period will at long last find a solution which would help heal the wounds of the past and bring peace and understanding to the ancient land of Cyprus, the island of Aphrodite.

The next speaker on my list is Mr. Nail Atalay, to whom the Council has extended an invitation under rule 39 of its provisional rules of procedure. I invite him to take a place at the Council table and to make his statement. 39. Mr. ATALAY: Mr. President, I should like to thank you, and each member of this body, for giving me the opportunity of addressing the Council. 40. On behalf of my Government and on my own behalf, I should like to take the opportunity to thank and express our gratitude to the Secretary-General, without whose persistent and untiring efforts the intercommunal talks would not have been resumed and would not have continued satisfactorily. Our thanks and gratitude also go to his staff in the Secretariat and in the field, and to those military and civilian personnel who have been involved in efforts to find a just and lasting solution to the Cyprus problem. 41. In August last, the last-minute concurrence of the two national communities, namely, the Turkish Cypriot and the Greek Cypriot, was obtained for the resumption of the intercommunal talks. That such a concurrence was obtained is due exclusively to the patience, tenacity and diplomatic skill of the Secretary- General, Mr. Waldheim. We also value highly the efforts of Under-Secretaries-General Mr. Urquhart and Mr. Perez de CuelIar, their aides, Mr. Sherry and Mr. Picco, the Special Representative of the Secretary- General in Cyprus, Mr. Gobbi, and the Force Commander, Major-General Quinn, in the fulfilment of their functions. 42. We have carefully studied the report of the 47. But also allow me to emphasize once again, Secretary-General. That report provides us with a before the Council and at this very important factual assessment of the situation prevailing in Cyprus juncture, that the basic prerequisite of a lasting and at the present time. We note in particular that the situajust solution to the problem of Cyprus is the distion in Cyprus continued to be quiet during the period appearance, even if gradually, of the mistrust which under review. But it is important to point out here once has originated from the tragic events of the past and again that Cyprus has known continuous tranquillity its replacement by an increasing desire for co-operation 43. The Council has just adopted resolution 482 (1980). In the third preambular paragraph there is again the reference to the “Government of Cyprus”. This reference is misleading since the high-level agreements of 12 February 1977-Denktag-Makarios [,!?I12323 of 30 April 1977, para. 5]-and of 19 May 1979-Denktag-Kyprianou--established the basis of an independent, bizonal, bicommunal federal republic and provided for the merging of the two separate Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot administrations. Therefore, the reference to the “Government of Cyprus” in the resolution makes it impossible for us to accept it. Nevertheless, the resolution contains two basic and operative elements. 44. Fist, it gives UNFICYP a mandate for another six months. The Government of the Turkish Federated State of Kibris declared its decision to give its consent to the extension of the mandate of the Force until 15 June 1981. But I must emphasize once again -and I quote from my previous statement-that “If UNFICYP is maintained in the island without its modus operandi being changed and without its present mandate being revised, then this situation will, we fear, create a vested interest in the perpetuation of the status quo in Cyprus. The circumstances prevailing at present in the island and the chronic deficit of the UNFICYP account are factors which have important bearing on the mandate of the Force as originally defined in Security Council resolution 186 (1964),” [2230th meeting, para. 47.1 45. Secondly, the resolution renews the mission of good offices of the Secretary-General in the intercommunal negotiations. My Government wholeheartedly welcomes and supports this renewal. We will spare no efforts in helping our dedicated Secretary- General in his exalted task towards achieving positive and constructive results. 46. Finally, on behalf of my Government, I wish to reiterate our position that direct intercommunal talks onan-equal footing under the auspices ofthe Secretary- General, in accordance with his opening statement of 9 August [S/14100, annex], is the best approach to a just and final settlement of the question of Cyprus. 54. My first comment concerns the third preambular paragraph. The reference in that paragraph to “the Government of Cyprus” is not in keeping either with legal truth or factual reality. As Turkey has explained its point of view on this terminology on a number of occasions, I shall limit myself today to saying that our reservation on this paragraph has not altered and retains all its validity. Accordingly, I should like to inform the Council that Turkey’s support for the implementation of the terms of this resolution on Cyprus remains conditional upon the exclusion of this concept of “the Government of Cyprus” as it now appears.

The next speaker is the representative of Turkey, on whom I now call.

Mr. President, may I first of all express to you the gratitude of the Turkish delegation for the discretion and objectivity which you have demonstrated during the consultations you have conducted on the question under discussion. 50. I should have preferred to be in a position not to have to ask to be allowed to speak today, because I think that, for all those interested, silence would have been the best attitude in view of the positive and constructive atmosphere of the intercommunal talks which are in progress in Cyprus. I should have preferred it because our desire was to avoid any unnecessary polemics and accusations which lead only to consequences unfavourable for the conduct of those talks. That is still our desire. Nevertheless, I cannot help but think that the Council could well have dispensed with the interventions of the parties directly concerned, and that a procedure similar to that used yesterday by the General Assembly could have been followed. l 55. The second comment I should like to make consists of informing the Council that Turkey’s various reservations and positions on the subject of the earlier resolution mentioned in the resolution also remain valid. 56. May I now formulate a third and last comment. In the opinion of the Turkish delegation, the wording of this resolution does not reflect sufficiently the developments of the last six months. Indeed, the adoption of the penultimate resolution of the Council on the same subject took place at a time when intercommunal talks had not yet resumed. At that time it was therefore entirely natural and acceptable for the Council to invite the two Cypriot communities to resume those talks on the basis of the lo-point agreement. But in fact the talks were resumed, not only on the basis of the high-level agreement of 12 February 1977 and the IO-point agreement of 19 May 1979, but also on the basis of the opening statement of the Secretary-General of 9 August, which refers to those two agreements and complements them by certain elements of capital importance. These talks are at present taking place on the basis of that statement, and it could not be otherwise. It would therefore have been much more in keeping with both historical reality and diplomatic reality to refer in the resolution to the opening statement of the Secretary-General. Accordingly, the Turkish delegation interprets the last paragraph of the preamble and paragraph 2 in the sense that I have just indicated, because we know that the maintenance of the former wording is due solely to practical considerations on the part of members of the Council and that the Council, having taken note of the report of the Secretary-General, is certainly aware of this important development, which, in fact, made it possible for the intercommunal talks to resume and still enables them to continue. 51. I would request you therefore, Mr. President, to be good enough to bear with me in order that I may bring to the knowledge of the Council a few observations on the report of the Secretary-General and on the resolution which has just been adopted. I would request the members of the Council, as well as all the parties concerned who are present here, not to take this in any way as an allocation of blame or as accusations. 52. The Secretary-General has described the situation prevailing in the island during the period covered by his report as calm, and has given us details of the meetings which were held in the context of the intercommunal talks. That report supplies us with an objective and realistic account of the developments of the past six months. Although there may be a few details on which my delegation has some difficulty, I feel that this is not the moment to discuss them. Having said that, I should like once again to express our profound gratitude to the Secretary-General, who has succeeded in persuading the Turkish community and the Greek community of the island to resume their talks, which, in the opinion of my Government, are the best route in the search for a peaceful, just and lasting solution to the problem of Cyprus. I note with satisfaction the positive statements made by the Greek side in the same sense. My Government accordingly reaffirms its full support for the Secretary- General in his mission of good offices in Cyprus, and assures him that it remains resolved to help to facilitate his very arduous task. 57. The resolution just adopted extends the mandate of UNFICYP for another six months. My Govemment accepts this renewal in view of the fact that the Council has just been officially informed by Mr. Nail Atalay, the representative of the Turkish Federated State of Kibris, of the consent of its authorities thereto. Nevertheless, I should like to note that Mr. Atalay’s 58. Before concluding, permit me once again to thank the Secretary-General for the tireless efforts he is constantly making, with complete impartiality, in the United Nations activities in Cyprus. The Secretary General continues to elicit our admiration for his tenacity, his patience and his skill in his work on the , question of Cyprus. My. Government and I wish him every success. 59. I should not wish to conclude without saying a word of thanks for the highly important and constructive contributions of Mr. Perez de CuCllar and Mr. Brian Urquhart, Under-Secretaries-General, and those of Mr. George Sherry and Mr. Giandomenico Picco. The efforts of Ambassador Hugo Gobbi, Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Cyprus, and those of Mr. Remy Gorge, his assistant, are likewise highly appreciated by the Turkish Government. 60. My Government’s thanks are also extended to the Governments of all the States which have contributed and which continue to contribute to the Force. Through Major-General James J. Quinn, Commander of UNFICYP, I should like to express our thanks and congratulations to the gallant officers, noncommissioned offtcers and men of the Force for the valuable services they have rendered to the cause of peace. 61. I should like to say one more word, on the subject of missing persons. In that regard, I should Litho in United Nations, New York 00300 83-61462-September 19864,050

I see that the representative of Cyprus wishes to speak and I now call on him.

I shall be : extremely brief, Sir, in making very short replies on two points raised by the representative of Turkey. 64. The first refers to the third preambular paragraph of the resolution just adopted. My short reply is, first, reference to the record and to the statements we made in connection therewith in the past; secondly, my very presence here in the capacity in which I am acting. 65. As regards the second point, that is to say, the opening statement made by the Secretary-General, I should like to say that a close study of that statement and the framework within which it was made reveals its status perfectly clearly. The meeting rose at II .55 a.m. NOTE I Oficial Records of the General Assembly, Thirty-f$th Session, Plenary Meetings, 89th meeting.