Sunday papers

Hallelujah and praise Allah, says the Sunday Mail's satyrical weekly column Coffeeshop, our two leaders on Tuesday found the common language that went missing in June and threatened to turn the peace process into a big pay-day for interpreters and linguists who would be called to negotiate the meanings of words. The hard-boiled, intransigent puppet of Ankara agreed ‘in principle’, with his reasonable, flexible comrade with regard to ‘single sovereignty and citizenship’. This begs the question, what does ‘in principle’ mean? At least someone at Phil picked up the suspicious PIO behaviour over the translation of the word ‘single’ into Greek. In its first translation of the joint communiqué, the PIO translated ‘single’ as ‘mias’, but then issued a second translation, advising us to ignore the first. In the second it used the Greek phrase ‘mias ke monadikis’ (one only), which is how the Concise Oxford Dictionary defines ‘single’.

Former Ethnarch Tassos was certainly not convinced by the wording of the communiqué. He submitted a 14-page document at Friday’s National Council meeting arguing that the issue of sovereignty and citizenship had not been agreed, that no progress had been made at the technical committees and working groups and that the criteria for the start of talks had not been satisfied. You have to admire the man’s unwavering faith in negativity and pessimism, which he pursues with the religious fervour of a true zealot.

Coffeeshop also refers to the appointment of former Australian foreign minister, Alexander Downer who has been described in the Aussie press as “puerile, frivolous and pompous”. A big supporter of George Bush and with a tendency to behave like a bull in china shop, it will not take him long to upset everyone. A blunt, gung-ho, pompous, insensitive Aussie, who knows nothing about Cyprob etiquette and vocabulary might not provide a settlement, but he will certainly provide entertainment. On one occasion, on entering Melbourne Airport, he saw an Australian career diplomat queuing at the check-in desk and called out ‘loser’ to him, before ducking behind some people so that he would not be seen. The last thing this man will be in Kyproulla is a downer.

Makarios Drousiotis writing in Politis says Tassos Papadopoulos is playing his last card and trying to blackmail Christofias into not going to direct talks. He says a gap has grown between the Tassos supporters within Diko who don't want direct talks and the Diko president who supports Christofias' handlings. Tassos himself has submitted his opposition in writing to the National Council and at the same time leaked the information to the popular daily Phileleftheros. According to reliable information, he says, Tassos has two aims - a) to terrorise Christofias in the hopes that he will have second thoughts about proceeding to direct talks b) to instigate Diko's withdrawal from government. The Tassos camp was encouraged by the step back that Christofias took after he was criticised for his 23 May statement especially by Tassos himself in an interview published in Phileleftheros. Government circles believe Tassos put his positions in writing and made them public in order to fuel a public debate and create reactions. However, Tassos' strategy faces two problems - Christofias' clarification on the issues of a single sovereignty and nationality strengthened him and enabled him to say he now has the basis for a solution and reason enough to proceed with direct talks, and secondly Tassos is unable to carry the whole of Diko with him, especially since Garoyan supports Christofias and controls most of the decision making. He quotes a Diko member who has fallen out with both Tassos and Garoyian as saying that "Papadopoulos will fail. He is able to destroy, and can destroy the Akel-Diko cooperation in order to avenge his defeat, but he is totally unable to build and can offer nothing to the cause of reunification".

Pambos Charalambous writing in Alithia refers to the negative statements from Omirou (Edek) and Silouris (Evroko) after the National Council meeting expressing their doubts as to the whole approach to the Cyprus problem, the introduction of deadlines and the danger of going to direct talks without more progress, their concern that the 8 July agreement has been abandoned and their call for intransigent statements like references to the virgin birth to stop. He says it all reminds him of a speech Constantinos Lordos once made years ago when as a Disy member of the House of Representatives during a discussion on the state budget during which all members take the floor and speak for ever, during which he said that the main reason why the Cyprus problem hasn't been solved all these years is because it has become a profession, without which the various Cyprus problem professionals would have nothing to do in politics.

Simerini carries the results of a poll which says that 8 out of 10 Cypriots believe that Turkey will never agree to a fair solution of the Cyprus problem. An overwhelming majority of respondents believe that Christofias was right to meet with Talat while 55% believe the outcome of that meeting was positive. Eight out of ten agree with Christofias' handling of the Cyprus problem. The headline of the article reads "Unfair solution due to Turkish intransigence"