UN Secretary-General to visit Cyprus?

According to media reports from Cyprus and New York, UN Secreatary General Ban Ki Moon may be coming to Cyprus arriving as early as this Sunday for talks with the leaders of the two communities. He will be accompanied by Lynn Pascoe, UN Under-Secretary for political affairs, while Elizabeth Spehar, UN Director of the Americas and Europe Division, is expected to come a few days earlier to prepare the ground.

However, the UN yesterday remained tight-lipped. When asked to confirm this and whether the reason he was coming was to announce an agreement on governance, the UN's Special Adviser in Cyprus, Alexander Downer, said "it doesn’t fall upon our humble offices, or relatively humble offices here, to make announcements for the Secretary-General".

Downer played down fears of interference in the talks: “From the Secretary General downwards we are not into the game of arbitration and mediation. It’s important for people to understand that. We have not at any stage proposed doing that, or threatened to do that, or seeing it fruitful to do that.”

Commenting on the latest meetings between the two leaders, Downing said they "had a very full day today continuing their discussions about governance and power-sharing and exchanging views on the different ideas that they have been putting forward".

He also said that the two men had had an opportunity to discuss a whole range of different issues in different formats.

"One of the formats is what we call a plenary session, where all the advisers are there and quite a few of us from the United Nations. Another format is where they have the two leaders and the two representatives, and me and Mr Zerihoun. Another format is where the two leaders have a téte-à-téte session. Through these different formats there’s been an opportunity to discuss a whole range of different issues, which wouldn’t be right or very helpful for us to get into the details".

News of the UN Secretary General's possible visit was greeted with suspicion by political parties.

AKEL leader Andros Kyprianou told Astra Radio yesterday that on the face of it, the talks so far did not warrant a visit by the UN chief. He expressed the belief that UN Special Adviser Alexander Downer himself was most likely the “architect” of the high profile visit. Asked whether Ban was coming to knock heads together and produce results, Kyprianou replied: “Our side will not play this game. For impressions sake, (we will not) enter this PR game of Mr Downer or anyone else. If there is real progress, we can say there was progress on some issues, but an objective look shows that we are a long way yet in all issues.”

DIKO said they were “surprised” by the visit given the lack of real progress in the talks. Spokesman Fotis Fotiou said: “If the UNSG’s aim is to pressure our side too, this would be wrong and the president should not accept this process. If he aims to pressure the other side, then he is welcome.”

A diplomatic source told the Cyprus Mail last night that the UN chief was coming to “lend his support and encouragement to the process”. Despite reluctance among some quarters in Cyprus, the visit was more about carrot than stick. “I don’t think there’s anything more than that. It’s all positive stuff,” he said.

It is believed Ban will meet the two leaders separately on Monday morning and then jointly later in the afternoon before leaving Cyprus on Tuesday. Most of the speculation yesterday focused on what kind of announcement Ban would make after the joint meeting. The main questions centred on whether President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat would announce any progress on the governance chapter? Will some sort of interim agreement be put on the table? Or will they simply announce more meeting, perhaps another round of intensive talks, before Talat faces ‘presidential’ elections in April? And also, is the UN trying to show tacit support for the pro-solution Talat through this visit?

The paper also says that Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu repeated the call for four-party talks in an interview with NTV. He criticised the Greek Cypriot side for always saying ‘NO’. “Since 1974, the Greek Cypriots have adopted this bad habit of saying no to everything and they think that in this way, they will get what they want, but if Turkey is pushed, this path will not lead to peace,” he said.