Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, has said that important developments might take place in Cyprus, according to Turkish daily Cumhurriyet. “There are some issues which are developing. I cannot say something because of state interests. When the time comes, they will be announced; at this time it is early to state some things.”
Moreover, in an article headlined “The target in Cyprus is four-party summit”, another Turkish daily, Sabah, says that “Ankara has pressed the button for convincing the Greek Cypriots in the ongoing negotiations between the Turks and the Greeks in Cyprus.” “It says that on December 7, Prime Minister Erdogan will give the message to the US President Obama that ‘a timetable should be created for the process. The paper says the target is, through an uninterrupted negotiating process like Burgenstock or Camp David, to go to a referendum at the beginning of 2010 before the elections are held in the north of the island. It adds that support will be asked from the US in setting a timetable for the negotiating process.
It says that Athens has received a letter that Erdogan sent to the Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou positively and it is expected that Davutoglu, who will go to Athens on 1-2 December for the OSCE meeting, will ask for a four-party summit to be held between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot sides, Greece and Turkey along the lines of Camp David or Burgenstock.
British Minister for Europe Chris Bryant, who is on a visit to Cyprus, yesterday voiced optimism about the progress of Cyprus negotiations.
"After a series of meetings this week, in particular with the two leaders and key figures in the negotiations, I now feel much more optimistic", he told reporters yesterday. "This is partly because there will be an intensification of negotiations in the coming weeks, and partly because of the trust between the two leaders."
He added "With four people who are committed to finding a solution, in Ankara, Athens and the two leaders here, there is a real possibility of achieving a lasting solution."
He expressed his bemusement at the situation in Cyprus, saying "When I went around the buffer zone I thought 'how does humanity end up tolerating this type of status quo?' All Europeans should hang their head in shame for allowing a divided capital city to remain in Europe... This is madness, this must be solved."
Asked to clarify the UK's position on Guarantor rights, Bryant said "We believe very firmly that this process should run its course. If at any stage the question of guarantees becomes a serious issue, we will not be a fly in the ointment and if this is something people want us to address we will not stand in the way of a resolution. It is in the interests of Cyprus and Europe."
Asked about Turkey's non-compliance with the 2004 Ankara Protocol, Bryant reaffirmed Britain's long-standing commitment to realising Turkish accession "We want it to look West not East. This is the key to the security of the west, but also potentially an Asian tiger on our doorsteps, and we want it in the EU. If we slam the door on Turkish accession that will be a way of saying we do not want Ankara to fulfill its obligations."
When asked what made him think Turkey was receptive to British encouragement, he likened the negotiations to a marathon race, in which we are nearing a stage "Where the end is in sight. It is like the last few hundred metres when we need to put all our energy into crossing the line. My experience is that (the leaders) are determined, and have a good working relationship. There is a level of trust there."
He added that Turkey had volunteered to sign the Ankara Protocol of its own free will and must implement it."
Moreover, Turkish daily Hurriyet reported that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a telephone conversation two days ago, that Britain supports the negotiating process in Cyprus and that “If necessary we are ready to evacuate the British bases in Cyprus”.
The National Council convened yesterday for a marathon session during which the parties were updated on progress in the talks on the Cyprus problem and discussed the EU-Turkey issue.
The Government Spokesman said that President Christofias had drafted a letter to be sent to EU heads of state informing them of Nicosia’s formal position regarding Turkey’s accession process. If Turkey does not fulfil its obligations then Cyprus will not allow it to pass untroubled from the scheduled December EU evaluation process, the Council decided.
As regards the talks, it was agreed to continue discussion on the property issue at the level of a sub-committee set up under the presidential adviser, where the parties can table their positions and views.
Some parties have have previously disagreed with certain specific positions taken by President Christofias, specifically as regards his position on a rotating Presidency, weighted voting, the residency question and the mechanism for resolving disputes.
“There are areas where there is a mutual understanding. There are areas where differences remain,” said DISY President Nicos Anastasiades, summing up the course of yesterday’s meeting.
The National Council will meet again on 4 December.
Wednesday, 25 November 2009
Sunday, 22 November 2009
What has been agreed so far
There will be no army in a future United Cyprus, according to Turkish daily newspaper Hurriyet, which revealed on Thursday details of what has been agreed at the negotiations between Dimitri Christofias and Mehmet Ali Talat.
“This is how the United Cyprus will be”, the paper says. "In the new military-free-structure that will be voted by the two communities, the only armed force will be the police which will be along the lines of the FBI. There will be police force for each community. While the Turkish side wants the number of the police to be equal for each sector, the Greek Cypriot side insists on a proportion of 60% to 40%.There will be common passports and identity cards. Turkish and Greek will be the official languages with each community being able to learn the other's in school. A possible third working language may also be specified. In government departments, if the director is Turk, his deputy will be Greek and vice versa. There will be a rotating presidency.”
The paper quotes diplomatic sources as saying that they had agreed that the senate would elect the future President and his deputy and these two members would hold office in rotation.
According to the sources, the biggest problem in the negotiations is the insistence of the Greek Cypriots on single sovereignty. The Greek Cypriots desire the transformation of the Republic of Cyprus to a federated state and do not accept two sovereign states. “The Turkish side wants continuation of the structure currently existing,” writes the paper. If the United Cyprus is accepted, a new cabinet will be established with six Greek Cypriots and three Turks as members. The Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Europe, Finance and Internal Affairs will come from different communities. For any decision to be approved, the vote of at least one person from each community will be needed.
Property is one of the thorniest issues. The framework whereby compensation will be paid out has not been defined.
If an agreement is reached, the two sides will hold a referendum. Both sides need to approve it for the agreement to be in force.
President Christofias said on Friday that there is convergence of views with the Turkish Cypriot side on the property issue although a couple of issues still remain outstanding.
After another meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, in the framework of the ongoing talks on the Cyprus problem, Christofias told the press that they had had a very productive meeting.
Commenting on the report by Turkish daily Hurriyet on what had been agreed so far, he said it is true that they had agreed that the solution would establish a federation, that would be a single state with a single sovereignty and a single international entity, but that it was not true that the Turkish Cypriot side is insisting on the present situation remaining as it is as far as sovereignty is concerned, namely two sovereign states.
"It is true that we agreed that Cyprus would be demilitarised, that there would be no army, and it is also true that we agreed that there will be a police force in the units as well as a federal police force. Also it is true that we agreed on a rotating presidency. But it is not true that we agreed that the President and Vice President will be elected by the Senate. That is the Turkish side's position. Our side's position is that they should be voted directly by the people with weighted votes, even though there are a number of people who have reacted against this", he said.
The two sides will meet again on Tuesday when they are expected to discuss the issues of aliens, citizenship, immigration and asylum.
According to the Cyprus Mail, President Christofias yesterday gave a nod of appreciation to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for the interest he has shown in the Cyprus problem.
Asked to comment on a recent article written by Brown and published in Greek and Turkish Cypriot diaspora publications in the UK, Christofias said: “The man wants to help without interfering in the talks, let’s make that clear”.
He added that the two had struck up a good friendship. “I have developed a very good relationship with Gordon Brown. It’s not by chance that he talks about his friend Demetris Christofias, a friendship has been built.”
The confessed friendship comes in stark contrast to past comments made by Christofias, when he had described Britain as “our evil demon”. However, the two countries appeared to turn a new leaf in relations in June 2008, following Christofias’ visit to Downing Street where the two leaders signed a Memorandum of Understanding.
In his article published in Parikiaki and Toplum Postasi, Brown referred to his meeting with his “good friend” Christofias last week, which reminded him of the “huge contribution made by Cypriots from both communities to our life and society here in the United Kingdom”. He noted the first hand personal accounts he has heard “of the historical injustices that both communities have suffered”, saying now was the time to heal the wounds of the past and move forward to a brighter future.
“It has never been more vital that Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots in Britain, standing together, urge their leaders to go the extra mile,” he said and referred to the “unprecedented opportunity to end the 35 year long division of the island”.
Brown said “real progress” has been made and “much ground covered” in the talks, adding that with flexibility and compromise, an agreement would be possible next year.
“While the British Government will not interfere, there is an abundance of international goodwill within the international community…for negotiations to reunify the island to succeed, and for history to be made,” he concluded.
U.N. Special Adviser for Cyprus, Alexander Downer, is expected to visit New York during the first two weeks of December to brief UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the latest developments on the Cyprus issue. The Cyprus News Agency cited UN sources yesterday saying that Downer would meet with the UN team dealing with the Cyprus issue in New York and inform the UN Security Council on the latest developments.
The UN Secretary-General is expected to issue two reports on Cyprus early next month. The first, due on December 1, concerns the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) and the second report concerns progress achieved regarding the UNSG’s good offices in Cyprus, to be published some days later. According to CNA sources, the UNFICYP report will not differ to a great extent from the previous report. The second report will assess positively the progress achieved since September 2008 in the talks and will ascertain that there are different approaches between the two sides. The report, according to diplomatic sources, will renew its call towards the leaders of the two communities in Cyprus to intensify their meetings, show political boldness and flexibility for achieving an overall solution in Cyprus.
An editorial in the Cyprus Mail says the Governor of the Central Bank Athanasios Orphanides’ comment about the ‘tremendous growth potential’ of a unified economy came as a breath of fresh air in the suffocating, negative atmosphere that surrounds the efforts for a settlement. It was about time a respected public official, whose professional standing and integrity cannot be disputed, focused on the positive consequences of re-unification, because until now the doom and gloom merchants have been setting the agenda.
All we have been hearing, so far, is disaster-talk by lawyers obsessed with legal technicalities and calculatingly avoiding the bigger picture. These are the lawyers who have made a profession out of taking proposals submitted at the peace talks and picking holes in them in order to support their settlement-doomsday scenarios and advertise their noble commitment to high ideals of justice. Their message is that re-unification, under the conditions currently being discussed, would be catastrophic.
Orphanides, who does not go with the political flow and has repeatedly proved his independence, in an interview to Reuters this week, said: “I strongly believe that a unified economy gives tremendous growth potential for the island.... It would also create the wealth that could be sorely needed in order to finance the aspects of re-unification that we may face ahead.” He added a proviso – any deal should keep the number of barriers to a unified economy at a minimum. The fewer there were the quicker the economic convergence of the two economies would be.
It was the first time Orphanides, who keeps his public statements to a minimum, had spoken about the positive effects of a solution on the economy. It was a timely intervention, given that a couple of weeks ago, his predecessor, Dr Christodoulos Christodoulou, presented a book he had written in which he argued that Greek Cypriots would become poorer as a result of settlement. Very few people with an understanding of economics would have taken Dr Christodoulou’s simplistic, unrelenting negativity, which often reads like propaganda, very seriously, but anti-settlement campaigners have been citing it to further their cause.
At least most people know that Orphanides is significantly, better-qualified to talk about economic matters than Dr Christodoulou, who is not a qualified economist, let alone an authority on the subject. In fairness, the current finance minister Charilaos Stavrakis and his predecessor Michalis Sarris, both respected economists, have also spoken about the big boost re-unification would give the economy. Hopefully they would rejoin the debate soon, because people like Dr Christodoulou, who have an anti-settlement agenda, cannot be left to cultivate unjustified fear.
Orphanides’ comments could prove doubly useful if they were also taken on board by the Turkish Cypriot side which still seems to support the idea of certain economic barriers being in place after a settlement.
“This is how the United Cyprus will be”, the paper says. "In the new military-free-structure that will be voted by the two communities, the only armed force will be the police which will be along the lines of the FBI. There will be police force for each community. While the Turkish side wants the number of the police to be equal for each sector, the Greek Cypriot side insists on a proportion of 60% to 40%.There will be common passports and identity cards. Turkish and Greek will be the official languages with each community being able to learn the other's in school. A possible third working language may also be specified. In government departments, if the director is Turk, his deputy will be Greek and vice versa. There will be a rotating presidency.”
The paper quotes diplomatic sources as saying that they had agreed that the senate would elect the future President and his deputy and these two members would hold office in rotation.
According to the sources, the biggest problem in the negotiations is the insistence of the Greek Cypriots on single sovereignty. The Greek Cypriots desire the transformation of the Republic of Cyprus to a federated state and do not accept two sovereign states. “The Turkish side wants continuation of the structure currently existing,” writes the paper. If the United Cyprus is accepted, a new cabinet will be established with six Greek Cypriots and three Turks as members. The Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Europe, Finance and Internal Affairs will come from different communities. For any decision to be approved, the vote of at least one person from each community will be needed.
Property is one of the thorniest issues. The framework whereby compensation will be paid out has not been defined.
If an agreement is reached, the two sides will hold a referendum. Both sides need to approve it for the agreement to be in force.
President Christofias said on Friday that there is convergence of views with the Turkish Cypriot side on the property issue although a couple of issues still remain outstanding.
After another meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, in the framework of the ongoing talks on the Cyprus problem, Christofias told the press that they had had a very productive meeting.
Commenting on the report by Turkish daily Hurriyet on what had been agreed so far, he said it is true that they had agreed that the solution would establish a federation, that would be a single state with a single sovereignty and a single international entity, but that it was not true that the Turkish Cypriot side is insisting on the present situation remaining as it is as far as sovereignty is concerned, namely two sovereign states.
"It is true that we agreed that Cyprus would be demilitarised, that there would be no army, and it is also true that we agreed that there will be a police force in the units as well as a federal police force. Also it is true that we agreed on a rotating presidency. But it is not true that we agreed that the President and Vice President will be elected by the Senate. That is the Turkish side's position. Our side's position is that they should be voted directly by the people with weighted votes, even though there are a number of people who have reacted against this", he said.
The two sides will meet again on Tuesday when they are expected to discuss the issues of aliens, citizenship, immigration and asylum.
According to the Cyprus Mail, President Christofias yesterday gave a nod of appreciation to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for the interest he has shown in the Cyprus problem.
Asked to comment on a recent article written by Brown and published in Greek and Turkish Cypriot diaspora publications in the UK, Christofias said: “The man wants to help without interfering in the talks, let’s make that clear”.
He added that the two had struck up a good friendship. “I have developed a very good relationship with Gordon Brown. It’s not by chance that he talks about his friend Demetris Christofias, a friendship has been built.”
The confessed friendship comes in stark contrast to past comments made by Christofias, when he had described Britain as “our evil demon”. However, the two countries appeared to turn a new leaf in relations in June 2008, following Christofias’ visit to Downing Street where the two leaders signed a Memorandum of Understanding.
In his article published in Parikiaki and Toplum Postasi, Brown referred to his meeting with his “good friend” Christofias last week, which reminded him of the “huge contribution made by Cypriots from both communities to our life and society here in the United Kingdom”. He noted the first hand personal accounts he has heard “of the historical injustices that both communities have suffered”, saying now was the time to heal the wounds of the past and move forward to a brighter future.
“It has never been more vital that Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots in Britain, standing together, urge their leaders to go the extra mile,” he said and referred to the “unprecedented opportunity to end the 35 year long division of the island”.
Brown said “real progress” has been made and “much ground covered” in the talks, adding that with flexibility and compromise, an agreement would be possible next year.
“While the British Government will not interfere, there is an abundance of international goodwill within the international community…for negotiations to reunify the island to succeed, and for history to be made,” he concluded.
U.N. Special Adviser for Cyprus, Alexander Downer, is expected to visit New York during the first two weeks of December to brief UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the latest developments on the Cyprus issue. The Cyprus News Agency cited UN sources yesterday saying that Downer would meet with the UN team dealing with the Cyprus issue in New York and inform the UN Security Council on the latest developments.
The UN Secretary-General is expected to issue two reports on Cyprus early next month. The first, due on December 1, concerns the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) and the second report concerns progress achieved regarding the UNSG’s good offices in Cyprus, to be published some days later. According to CNA sources, the UNFICYP report will not differ to a great extent from the previous report. The second report will assess positively the progress achieved since September 2008 in the talks and will ascertain that there are different approaches between the two sides. The report, according to diplomatic sources, will renew its call towards the leaders of the two communities in Cyprus to intensify their meetings, show political boldness and flexibility for achieving an overall solution in Cyprus.
An editorial in the Cyprus Mail says the Governor of the Central Bank Athanasios Orphanides’ comment about the ‘tremendous growth potential’ of a unified economy came as a breath of fresh air in the suffocating, negative atmosphere that surrounds the efforts for a settlement. It was about time a respected public official, whose professional standing and integrity cannot be disputed, focused on the positive consequences of re-unification, because until now the doom and gloom merchants have been setting the agenda.
All we have been hearing, so far, is disaster-talk by lawyers obsessed with legal technicalities and calculatingly avoiding the bigger picture. These are the lawyers who have made a profession out of taking proposals submitted at the peace talks and picking holes in them in order to support their settlement-doomsday scenarios and advertise their noble commitment to high ideals of justice. Their message is that re-unification, under the conditions currently being discussed, would be catastrophic.
Orphanides, who does not go with the political flow and has repeatedly proved his independence, in an interview to Reuters this week, said: “I strongly believe that a unified economy gives tremendous growth potential for the island.... It would also create the wealth that could be sorely needed in order to finance the aspects of re-unification that we may face ahead.” He added a proviso – any deal should keep the number of barriers to a unified economy at a minimum. The fewer there were the quicker the economic convergence of the two economies would be.
It was the first time Orphanides, who keeps his public statements to a minimum, had spoken about the positive effects of a solution on the economy. It was a timely intervention, given that a couple of weeks ago, his predecessor, Dr Christodoulos Christodoulou, presented a book he had written in which he argued that Greek Cypriots would become poorer as a result of settlement. Very few people with an understanding of economics would have taken Dr Christodoulou’s simplistic, unrelenting negativity, which often reads like propaganda, very seriously, but anti-settlement campaigners have been citing it to further their cause.
At least most people know that Orphanides is significantly, better-qualified to talk about economic matters than Dr Christodoulou, who is not a qualified economist, let alone an authority on the subject. In fairness, the current finance minister Charilaos Stavrakis and his predecessor Michalis Sarris, both respected economists, have also spoken about the big boost re-unification would give the economy. Hopefully they would rejoin the debate soon, because people like Dr Christodoulou, who have an anti-settlement agenda, cannot be left to cultivate unjustified fear.
Orphanides’ comments could prove doubly useful if they were also taken on board by the Turkish Cypriot side which still seems to support the idea of certain economic barriers being in place after a settlement.
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Much work still needed on property issue
There is a lot of work to do on the property issue, Alexander Downing the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advisor on Cyprus admitted after the leaders of the two communities held a meeting on the issue yesterday.
“As I have explained before this a comprehensive and difficult issue and they are just continuing the work on the property question”, he added. “Over time the ambition here is to achieve greater degrees of convergence and we look forward to that progressing”.
He added that the two leaders' representatives and their teams are going to come together on Thursday for further discussions about the property question and then the leaders will meet again on Friday afternoon to review what has been done. They have also mapped out further meetings into December, he said.
President Christofias on his part told the press after the meeting that “there is nothing new” and “we are not yet ready to have an in-depth discussion”.
According to the Cyprus Mail, it is understood that the two sides are discussing who would have the first say on what happens with private property: the rightful owner or the current occupant.
“As I have explained before this a comprehensive and difficult issue and they are just continuing the work on the property question”, he added. “Over time the ambition here is to achieve greater degrees of convergence and we look forward to that progressing”.
He added that the two leaders' representatives and their teams are going to come together on Thursday for further discussions about the property question and then the leaders will meet again on Friday afternoon to review what has been done. They have also mapped out further meetings into December, he said.
President Christofias on his part told the press after the meeting that “there is nothing new” and “we are not yet ready to have an in-depth discussion”.
According to the Cyprus Mail, it is understood that the two sides are discussing who would have the first say on what happens with private property: the rightful owner or the current occupant.
Sunday, 1 November 2009
Solution not possible before end the of the year
According to the Cyprus Mail, Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat agreed yesterday that negotiations on the Cyprus problem cannot be completed by the end of the year.
Speaking at a joint news conference at the end of his visit to Ankara, Talat referred to the need to set timeframes, as well as involve the UN in his direct talks with President Demetris Christofias. He also spoke of “alternative solutions” if a deal could not be found.
“This procedure can’t last forever. There needs to be a timeframe and we need to know when the procedure will end,” said Gul. He said his assessment was that “the negotiating procedure can’t be completed by the end of the current year”.
“In order for such an agreement to succeed, two component states should be created and the Greek Cypriot side must understand that Turkish Cypriots are equal partners. They are aware of this but they need to digest it,” said Gul.
Talat said Ankara’s support was of great significance to the Turkish Cypriot community. “We have no other support. We are working for a solution to the Cyprus problem. We asked for an expansion of the procedure with the participation of the EU and UN, but the Greek side keeps objecting, using its privileges.”
Talat also deemed it impossible to reach a solution by the end of the year. “It seems a solution in 2009 is not possible. It is our strong desire that negotiations are complete before the 2010 [Turkish Cypriot] presidential elections.”
“We desire a timeframe and an intervention by the UN. The negotiations can’t go on forever. If the whole procedure collapses, we have other alternative solutions, but we will not be discussing them at this phase.”
The Cyprus Mail’s satirical column Coffeeshop deals with the lynching last week of Toumzos Tsielepis, the president’s negotiations adviser, who appeared on a lunchtime Antenna TV panel discussion on the Cyprus problem together with four insufferably arrogant lawyers, competing over who would inflict the greatest humiliation on him until he finally walked out. It deserves to be released on DVD as a classic of the genre and could be a very useful tool for parents who do not want their kids to grow up to become lawyers. When the lawyers realised they were getting nowhere by shouting at the unpatriotic Tselepis, they raised the issue of his ‘poor qualifications’ which they claim is the reason comrade presidente is making big concessions to the Turks at the talks. As the grumpy old lawyer Loucis Loucaides, a former judge at the ECHR who finds difficulty stringing together a coherent sentence, asked: “Are you a lawyer?” Tselepis said “no” and Loucaides, with spittle coming out of his mouth, smugly responded, “And you will not become one”. It seems Tsielepis’ PhD in Public and International Law is not a satisfactory qualification for the lawyers on the panel. Why would he want to anyway? Why would anyone want to become a lawyer and end up a cantankerous, mean-spirited, patronising bully like Loucaides? It is not as if you need great intelligence or special qualities to join the profession – the Antenna studio panel made this obvious. The claim that you have to be a practising lawyer to be able to participate in the Cyprob talks was another stupidity expounded by one of our learned friends. Treating the Cyprob as a legal matter for lawyers to resolve is why there will never be a settlement. As one Cyprus-based diplomat astutely remarked many years ago, “How can you solve the Cyprus problem when there are 40,000 troops in the north and 30,000 lawyers in the south?”
Star of the show was the smooth-talking, self-regarding legal eagle Christos Clerides, who made his name as an anti-A plan campaigner and subsequently reaped big financial benefits by filing recourses to the ECHR for naive refugees, who thought this would be a better way of getting their properties back than voting for the plan. Clerides behaved like an ultra-competitive and insecure school-kid who will resort to the basest of methods to belittle his classmates in order to satisfy his feelings of superiority. “You have proved that you are not a lawyer because you constantly interrupt the other person... if you were a proper legal expert, you would know the first rule is that everyone must complete their argument, you take your notes and then respond.”
Speaking at a joint news conference at the end of his visit to Ankara, Talat referred to the need to set timeframes, as well as involve the UN in his direct talks with President Demetris Christofias. He also spoke of “alternative solutions” if a deal could not be found.
“This procedure can’t last forever. There needs to be a timeframe and we need to know when the procedure will end,” said Gul. He said his assessment was that “the negotiating procedure can’t be completed by the end of the current year”.
“In order for such an agreement to succeed, two component states should be created and the Greek Cypriot side must understand that Turkish Cypriots are equal partners. They are aware of this but they need to digest it,” said Gul.
Talat said Ankara’s support was of great significance to the Turkish Cypriot community. “We have no other support. We are working for a solution to the Cyprus problem. We asked for an expansion of the procedure with the participation of the EU and UN, but the Greek side keeps objecting, using its privileges.”
Talat also deemed it impossible to reach a solution by the end of the year. “It seems a solution in 2009 is not possible. It is our strong desire that negotiations are complete before the 2010 [Turkish Cypriot] presidential elections.”
“We desire a timeframe and an intervention by the UN. The negotiations can’t go on forever. If the whole procedure collapses, we have other alternative solutions, but we will not be discussing them at this phase.”
The Cyprus Mail’s satirical column Coffeeshop deals with the lynching last week of Toumzos Tsielepis, the president’s negotiations adviser, who appeared on a lunchtime Antenna TV panel discussion on the Cyprus problem together with four insufferably arrogant lawyers, competing over who would inflict the greatest humiliation on him until he finally walked out. It deserves to be released on DVD as a classic of the genre and could be a very useful tool for parents who do not want their kids to grow up to become lawyers. When the lawyers realised they were getting nowhere by shouting at the unpatriotic Tselepis, they raised the issue of his ‘poor qualifications’ which they claim is the reason comrade presidente is making big concessions to the Turks at the talks. As the grumpy old lawyer Loucis Loucaides, a former judge at the ECHR who finds difficulty stringing together a coherent sentence, asked: “Are you a lawyer?” Tselepis said “no” and Loucaides, with spittle coming out of his mouth, smugly responded, “And you will not become one”. It seems Tsielepis’ PhD in Public and International Law is not a satisfactory qualification for the lawyers on the panel. Why would he want to anyway? Why would anyone want to become a lawyer and end up a cantankerous, mean-spirited, patronising bully like Loucaides? It is not as if you need great intelligence or special qualities to join the profession – the Antenna studio panel made this obvious. The claim that you have to be a practising lawyer to be able to participate in the Cyprob talks was another stupidity expounded by one of our learned friends. Treating the Cyprob as a legal matter for lawyers to resolve is why there will never be a settlement. As one Cyprus-based diplomat astutely remarked many years ago, “How can you solve the Cyprus problem when there are 40,000 troops in the north and 30,000 lawyers in the south?”
Star of the show was the smooth-talking, self-regarding legal eagle Christos Clerides, who made his name as an anti-A plan campaigner and subsequently reaped big financial benefits by filing recourses to the ECHR for naive refugees, who thought this would be a better way of getting their properties back than voting for the plan. Clerides behaved like an ultra-competitive and insecure school-kid who will resort to the basest of methods to belittle his classmates in order to satisfy his feelings of superiority. “You have proved that you are not a lawyer because you constantly interrupt the other person... if you were a proper legal expert, you would know the first rule is that everyone must complete their argument, you take your notes and then respond.”
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