Was there significant progress or not?

Makarios Droushiotis writing in Politis says that confusion reigns as to whether “significant progress” has been achieved or not at the talks on the Cyprus problem.

According to DIKO the impression that leader Marios Garoyian got after his briefing from President Christofias was that progress has been insubstantial. Moreover DIKO circles also told the paper that Presidential Commissioner George Iacovou said that not only has there been no progress, but there has even been steps backwards on the part of the Turkish Cypriot side and that any impression of progress has been fabricated.

The writer says that interestingly enough similar information came from Eroglu’s party UBP which told Greek Cypriot papers that little progress has been achieved and that if any had it was because Talat had made concessions. On the other hand, circles close to Talat told the paper that there was substantial progress, “though perhaps not as much as we would have liked”.

No doubt, he adds, the matter of whether or not there has been progress will remain a subject of discussion for the foreseeable future.

The Cyprus Mail’s satirical column Coffeeshop, welcomes the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to Cyprus and says he arrives today on a pointless two-day visit to boost Talat’s re-election prospects, take part in Turkey’s communications games and try to resuscitate the dead talks.

It is not yet known if he will be wearing a lapel-badge that says ‘Vote for Talat’; that depends on what orders the ‘weak-willed and colourless’ South Korean is given by the cunning Big Al (Downer) and Lyn Pascoe who tricked him into visiting the island against his wishes and without informing the comrade.

The column says that our political and journalistic elite has been working overtime in the last few days to discover who is pulling the strings in the latest UN conspiracy to shaft the Greek Cypriots and help the Turks.

Some of our bash-patriots have expressed the fear that Ban would resolve the remaining differences and announce the closure of the chapter, which would be tantamount to the dreaded ‘interim agreement’, the new threat, a phrase that automatically triggers bash-patriotic paranoia.

There is no cause for alarm. How on earth would a ‘weak-willed’ Sec-Gen persuade two leaders renowned for their pig-headedness, reach an agreement that has eluded them for 16 months, in just a few hours?

And how would the interim agreement be signed when they also claim that there has been very little agreed at the intensive talks? House president and personality of the year Marios Garoyian, was telling his friends in the press yesterday that Tof and Tal had agreed next to nothing, implying that Big Al was lying when he was talking about substantial progress.

Meanwhile, the great Washington-based thinker and hack, Michalis Ignatiou, who also labelled Ban ‘weak-willed’, reported that the visit was a ‘leap into the void’ – no chance of an interim agreement. According to Ig, Ban is coming because “he cannot resist the pressure of his associates and the British”.

The duplicitous Brits had to have played some part in this badly-timed, leap into the void. But according to Ig, they were helped by Big Al, who apart from pressurising Ban, also ‘deceived’ comrade Tof.

To be fair, the attacks on Ban have been very mild compared to the type of abuse heaped on his Turk-loving predecessors. The worst we have said about Ban so far, is that he is a weak-willed, Anglo-American puppet who takes orders from his subordinates, helps Turkey’s communications games and interferes in pseudo-national elections. At least nobody accused him of being black, an indication that we are maturing politically.

But are we? Just a few years ago our bash-patriots were referring to Kofi Annan as ‘the black’. Now we have a Secretary-General, labelled by Simerini as ‘colourless’ and we are still complaining.