Cyprus talks to end soon

Talks to reunify Cyprus must end by early next year, or the UN will pull the plug saying the two communities cannot reach agreement, Turkish news channel NTV said last night - apparently quoting UN sources, the Cyprus Mail reported yesterday.

According to the report, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will call the two Cypriot leaders to New York soon after the May 22 Turkish parliamentary elections and tell them he wants reunification negotiations to end by December this year. At a stretch he will allow them to continue until early 2012, but not beyond then.

Official UN sources would not confirm the report last night. The report by the respected NTV news network however said the UN Secretary General would also call on the leaders to begin a process of “horse-trading”, which would start in July with discussions on territorial issues and then proceed through the other chapters of the negotiations. This process should last 12 weeks, the report claimed.

At the end of horse-trading, the Secretary General would then call the Cypriot leaders to another meeting at which he would propose a five-way conference involving the participation of the two Cypriot sides, along with the guarantor nations Greece, Turkey and Britain, NTV said. This meeting would focus on issues of security and guarantees.

The report added that in the case of anticipated opposition from the Greek Cypriot side to staging a five-way conference, the UN would offer EU participation in the talks in a “technical capacity”. If opposition was still not overcome, the UN would then end reunification talks – either by Ban Ki-moon himself declaring them “a failure”, or by the Secretary General’s special advisor Alexander Downer declaring that further discussions would be pointless.

NTV’s report said also that the UN Secretary General would overcome possible objections to his attempt to expedite talks from Greek Cypriot allies and UN Security Council permanent members China, Russia and France by taking “an approach that was not bound by the Security Council”.
A source on the Turkish Cypriot side said last night it believed the views expressed in the article to be “fairly consistent” with those expressed by the UN, and that it was possible the views had been leaked by the UN in order to gauge reaction from both sides.

The UN Secretary-General Mr Ban Ki-moon said at the weekend that both communities in Cyprus would need to work in a spirit of compromise and with a longer-term vision to reach a mutually acceptable comprehensive solution.

He appealed to the two leaders to reduce their differences through a “spirit of compromise and win-win” adding that it was essential for them to “show flexibility and examine the issues in depth”. There had been some progress on the economy and the EU but on the issues of security and property there was still much that had to be done.

The UN chief was speaking in Istanbul on the sidelines of a UN conference and also had a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Cyprus Foreign Minister, Markos Kyprianou. He was also expected to meet with Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas.

However, the Cyprus Mail reported that there was widespread condemnation of Mr Ban Ki-Moon’s comments. Officials and parties were particularly incensed by the fact that Ban was said to have asked for both sides to show flexibility and a spirit of compromise during the UN-led talks.
All agreed that it was unfair to equate the two sides’ responsibility in the matter and called on the SG to take more care with his public statements.

Speaking before his departure, Kyprianou played down the reactions to Ban’s interview. He said it was to be expected that the Greek Cypriot side would not be too happy with his statements, but added that it was common practice for the leaders of such international organisations to hold as diplomatic a stance as possible. He said the two had exchanged views on how the talks could prove more effective in the future. He said he relayed the Greek Cypriot side’s concerns on the current stagnation in the talks.

“I think we should grasp on to the fact that the Secretary-general shows a special interest in the Cyprus problem and his meetings with the Cypriot, Turkish and Greek governments will be centred on the Cyprus problem,” said Kyprianou. “What is important is for the UN to maintain an objective stance”.