Downer: Good momentum at talks

The leaders of the two communities on Thursday concentrated their discussions for reuniting Cyprus on the issue of property.

In a statement afterwards, the UN Special Representative in Cyprus, Alexander Downer, said the discussion will be continued on Monday and they will be getting together again next Wednesday to talk some more about this issue.

“They had a long meeting today and they had a good meeting today in the sense that they were able to talk very frankly with each other about issues that they have, and differences that they have, and convergences that they are confident they can build”.

He said that the overall view of the United Nations is that there is good momentum. The leaders are showing a lot of commitment to meeting, to talking through issues, including the Representatives”.

Commenting on recent statements from both sides on the occasion of the anniversary of the 1974 events, Mr Downer said this was a difficult time for all Cypriots.

“It is of course a time when people focus on history and focus on the past, and the important thing is that the leaders are working towards the future; they are not working towards the past, you can’t revisit the past. You can only live in the presence and the future, and the leaders are working towards the future, and we in the United Nations are very encouraged by that”.

The two leaders must tell people the truth about what is and is not possible if a Cyprus solution is finally to be found, said UN Special Adviser Alexander Downer on Wednesday 21 July at the launch of PRIO’s third report on the Cyprus peace dividend, the Cyprus Mail reports.

Downer urged the two leaders to tell the people what they needed to hear, not what they wanted to hear.

“Great leaders are all brave people and they change the paradigm. They don’t just tell people what they want to hear, they tell people what they need to hear. They tell people the truth, they level with people,” he said.

“They’re fair on their societies by being honest about the challenges that they face, about what can be achieved and what can’t be achieved, what hopes can never be fulfilled, what hopes can be fulfilled. That’s leadership,” he added.

He said the greatest leaders in history had a vision for their country, the ability to understand different points of view and to empathise with their adversaries. “They may not agree with them, but they can understand why they have that point of view.”

“You have an opportunity here in Cyprus to set an example to the world, of how Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots, for all the tragedy of the past that there has been, can come together and agree on building a new federation.

“It would be a great moment for this country, for this island, to put behind it the tragedy of the past. It would be a great moment for the world if Cyprus could lead the way and show that differences can be settled, solutions can be found to those differences and that a common vision can be pursued for the future,” he said.

The Turkish Cypriot side yesterday accused President Christofias of putting forward proposals he knew would be rejected in the north, the Cyprus Mail reports.

Kudret Ozersay, the Turkish Cypriot leadership’s Special Representative at the talks, told the paper the proposals represented nothing new, and called on Greek Cypriot side “to take a more constructive and responsible attitude” towards the ongoing talks.

He insisted yesterday that Christofias’ “diplomatic sleight of hand” contained nothing more than a regurgitation of past proposals that he knew would be rejected by the Turkish Cypriot side.

“Exchanging Varosha for direct trade was under discussion three years ago. It’s not something new,” Ozersay told the Sunday Mail. He added that direct trade was an EU proposal, and not a Greek Cypriot concession, and therefore it did not justify a concession from the Turkish Cypriots.

Another of Christofias’ proposals called for an international conference dealing with international agreements and treaties relating to the island. Ozersay said such a proposal had been made in March this year but had been rejected by the Turkish side because the proposal called for the Greek Cypriot side to effectively be represented twice, once as the Republic of Cyprus, and again as the Greek Cypriot community. The Turkish Cypriots, on the other hand, would be represented only once at the conference as the Turkish Cypriot community.

“If you propose things that you are aware the Turkish Cypriot side cannot accept, that means you are not serious and you are simply seeking a rejection,” Ozersay said.

Ozersay also criticised the third element of Christofias’ proposal, namely that the property issue be linked to the issues of territory and settlers from Turkey.

“The reason we are against this kind of linkage is because it ends up being a means by which the talks can be sabotaged,” Ozersay said. “The property issue is already complicated, so why insert other chapters into it?” he said, adding that the best way to deal with issues was on a one-by-one basis, and then trading off non-agreed subjects at the end of the process.
Ozersay said he had also been upset by the way Christofias had delivered his “proposal”, namely during a public speech to mark the anniversary of the Athens-inspired coup in July 1974 that triggered the Turkish invasion.

“If you are serious and want your ideas to be discussed, why don’t you propose them at the negotiating table? This is not a serious or appropriate way to make a proposal,” he said.

The Mail says that despite his relative youth, the thirty-seven year-old Ozersay has served as advisor to both previous Turkish Cypriot leaders, Rauf Denktash and Mehmet Ali Talat. He insisted yesterday that his current boss Dervish Eroglu, despite his nationalist mantle, was committed to the UN framework for talks.

“Had I thought Eroglu was not serious or was not willing to abide by his commitments to the UN, I would not have accepted this position,” Ozersay said.

Commenting on differences between in the negotiation strategies of Eroglu and his moderate predecessor Talat, Ozersay said,” Eroglu asks for more competencies [powers] for the constituent states, but he knows that he cannot cross the line and challenge the single international legal personality of the federal partnership. What he cannot accept is that the constituent states be treated, or have powers like, a municipality”.

Ozersay believes Eroglu is “a strong leader in the sense that if he is convinced by a text, I’m sure he can sell it to the people”.

The Cyprus Mail’s satirical column, Coffeeshop, says today that the Comrade president is having great difficulty coping with the pressure he is under. He is increasingly behaving like a man who has lost control and is desperate to regain it.

But he is deluding himself if he thinks that by making impassioned pleas for unity, he will eventually regain control. The funny thing is that his idea of unity involves the great, omniscient leader taking the decisions and everyone else applauding them. It is a philosophy that is best described by the German, ‘Ein volk, ein reich, ein Christofias’.

The unity message also featured prominently in the interview about the Cyprob that he gave to Costas Yennaris on Tuesday night, but we will not go into it. The only thing worth repeating was his comment about the package of proposals for the Cyprob talks, because it was so zany it recalled the late great Spy Kyp. He said “the first indications, internationally, were that the package of proposals was positive.” The package was announced at some black anniversary gathering instead of being submitted at the talks and, subsequently Eroglu publicly rejected it. Despite the rejection, Tof, in another Spy Kyp gimmick, said that its promotion would be intensified. Who the intensified promotion would be targeted at, he did not say. It could be the Russian or the Chinese, who are more likely to agree to just solution than the Turks.

Turkish Cypriot journalist and political commentator Mehmet Ali Birand writing in the Turkish Daily News and Politis says that the Greek Cypriots are making a gross miscalculation. They think that Turkey will compromise in Cyprus in order to become a full member of the EU. But what they don’t realise is that it is the other way round. If the Greek Cypriots want a solution, then Turkey’s way to Europe should be paved. Unless Ankara obtains from the EU what it desires, it won’t approve of any solution in Cyprus. Our Greek Cypriot friends are not aware, but they are missing the opportunity.

There are three scenarios in front of us:
- As long as Turkey remains outside the EU there won’t be any solution in Cyprus. In this case Ankara will start its recognition efforts and, rest assure, that the number of those recognizing Turkish Cyprus will increase.
- Once the way for Turkey’s full membership to the EU is paved, last-minute solutions won’t be good for either the Greek Cypriots, or the Turks.
- It is wise to find a solution by 2013. The Annan Plan has formed the necessary grounds. Now it’s good to find a compromise with sacrifices on both sides.

Greek Cypriots generally tend to want the whole of Cyprus under their control and as long as that doesn’t happen then today’s situation will persist. All opinion show this.

I can still hear what a Greek Cypriot told me: “We don’t want to live together and share Cyprus with Turks. During the day we want to go to the north and they can come to the south, but at night everybody should go home. The Turks can live in their own region but should not intervene in the country’s administration.” This is the situation.

The Greek Cypriots, willingly or unwillingly, divide Cyprus into two and go as far as losing the north.