Towards talks

Disy yesterday gave President Christofias the green light to proceed with direct talks on the Cyprus problem. Speaking after a one hour meeting between the President and the party's executive committee, Disy leader Nicos Anastasiades said that his party believes that the best way out of the present deadlock is through dialogue. He confirmed that the party had told the president that if on Friday he feels that the way is open he can "go ahead with out support". Alithia's front page headline reads "Mr President, go ahead".

According to Politis during the meeting they also discussed the progress that had been achieved at the working groups. The paper says it seems there has been progress on economic affairs, the EU and government, but no progress on the settlers or territorial issues, with neither side being willing to open their cards or submit maps, nor on the questions of guarantees and rights of intervention. The paper also says that President Christofias believes that Diko will support him in the end "in its own way" despite its misgivings. The party's executive committee is meeting today to give its final answer.

Earlier, Akel too had given him his support. Akel's number two Nikos Katsourides criticising the misgivings of some of the governing coalition parties, like Edek leader Yiannakis Omirou who worried that the talks would come up against the intransigent Turkish positions, wondered when these people would consider conditions to be right for the start of talks. "If these aren't favourable conditions, then what are?" he said.

Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat announced yesterday that he expects direct peace talks between the two sides to begin in September. In a live interview with CNN Turk, Talat added that one of the most important aspects of the talks would be the issue of political equality. The Cyprus Mail reports that he also mentioned that there were issues that constituted a “red line”, but the Turkish Cypriot side was prepared to discuss any matter put forward.

Meanwhile, Politis says Downer is expected in Cyprus on Sunday. The former Australian Foreign Minister is in New York and yesterday met with UN Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon ahead of the assumption of his duties on the island.

Elsewhere, Politis also reports that President Christofias is continuing his information campaign. In a message read out at an event to mark the fall of Kyrenia to Turkish troops, he said that "as Kyrenia citizens we will be able to exercise our right to return to our town within the framework of a bizonal, bicommunal federation under Turkish Cypriot rule and under a Cypriot central government. "What we need to do in order to end the military occupation and sufficiently guarantee our rights, is not an all or nothing approach, but insistence on a bizonal, bicommuncal federation that has been agreed upon for 30 years now between Archbishop Makarios as well as Spyros Kyprianou", he said.

Moreover, Disy leader Nicos Anastasiades speaking at a party event stressed that "the solution will be painful". He added that a compromise after 34 years may not be as just as we would have liked but at least the future of our children in this country can be assured.

The Cyprus Mail's editorial today says at last, we have a leader who is prepared to speak to people honestly about the settlement he can deliver. It is a good sign. It says the biggest criticism that can be made of Greek Cypriot politicians in the past is that they never spoke honestly to the people about the nature of the political settlement being negotiated with the other side preferring instead to tell people what they wanted to hear and by so doing raising expectations to unrealistically high levels. Needless to say, none has ever delivered on their empty promises. It was therefore no surprise that when the first Annan plan was made public in 2002, people were outraged about its provisions, as this was not what they were expecting. The plan was the result of negotiations by the Clerides government which, despite being committed to a settlement, had avoided preparing Greek Cypriots about what to expect. The Papadopoulos presidency proved even more irresponsible. Apart from stirring public hysteria against the plan, it promised that it would secure a much better settlement, something it knew it was incapable of doing. During his preelectoral campaign Papadopoulos even came up with the idiotic claim that their candidate would ensure a federal settlement “with the right content”, in contrast to the other candidates who would have negotiated a federation with the wrong content. Neither he nor his campaign managers had the decency to explain what the “right content” would include, as they had no intention of agreeing to the type of settlement that would have been acceptable to the Turkish Cypriot side. The reasoning was that the less people were told, the easier it was to mislead them and turn them against a settlement if and when the need arose.To his credit President Christofias has broken with this deplorable tradition. In an interview broadcast on Sunday night by the CyBC, he spoke with honesty and clarity on how a federal settlement would work, explaining what was meant by concepts such as ‘political equality’ and ‘partnership state’. He was refreshingly blunt on a variety of issues, which most politicians would have tried to fudge – we would no longer have a Greek Cypriot president and Council of Ministers; each constituent state would run its own affairs; the central state would be run by a partnership of the two communities; a rotating presidency had been agreed. Such honesty may have been a rude awakening for many viewers who were accustomed to being served with the politics of wishful thinking, but it was high time they were told what to expect in the event of an agreement. People have been served big words and empty promises for decades and Christofias must be congratulated for refusing to go down this path.

Simerini's editorial yesterday refers to President Christofias call to all those who disagree with the start of talks to say what else they propose. He's right to ask, however, the next question is why are they going to direct talks. Why are they choosing a procedure that has been tried and tested for 34 years and has failed? The paper says there has never been a proper policy on the Cyprus problem, no vision and no strategy. Talks has been the easy solution in the full knowledge that it wouldn't bring results. Even now we have no plan B as to what we will do if this too fails. We continue to travel along this same old unproductive road.