The European Union, with the consent of Nicosia and Ankara,
is working out a formula for the return of Famagusta, Foreign Minister Ioannis
Kasoulides has said.
Mr Kasoulides who is flying to Paris today, told CyBC that
from the messages that Turkey has given to Brussels, this seems likely. Of
course this is very early days, but since the Turkish side agrees to allow the
EU to examine the possibility with the two sides, this is a very big step”.
“Surely if we want the talks to have a genuine prospect
whereby the negotiators, the President and the National Council has the will and
trust of the people behind it, something big has to happen”.
Yesterday’s Politis revealed that the handing over of
Varosha is at the centre of an effort to pave the way for a final solution. At
a recent dinner in Brussels of EU foreign ministers facilitated by EU
Commissioner Stefan Fule a procedure for confidence building measures was
agreed centering on Varosha and Tymbou airport. The paper says the Greek
Cypriot side has made clear that it would not rule out the possibility of
allowing Tymbou to operate legally in exchange for Varosha provided this did
not entail recognition of the state in the north. The paper says that a
technical committee will explore with Turkey and the Cyprus Foreign Ministry
whether this is feasible. Despite the legal obstacles, it is acknowledged by
all that if this happens everyone will be a winner with the ultimate aim of a
solution being reached by the end of 2013 beginning of 2014.
The paper quotes reliable sources as saying that preparations
are underway for a new cycle of talks on the Cyprus problem due to start in
early October and that the new initiative based on Varosha and Tymbou airport
is its centrepoint.
Meanwhile, the paper says, both the Greek Cypriots and
Turkish Cypriots have a lot to do until then. President Anastasiades has a
meeting of the National Council in mid June which will be organised on a new
footing. He is expected to submit to the Council his new approach on the Cyprus
problem in accordance with his pre-election promises and he must also appoint a
new negotiator by end of June. The Turkish Cypriots on their part are heading
for elections at the end of July the result of which will decide policy on the
Cyprus problem. In the meantime there is the possibility of goodwill gestures
from both sides, while the Greek Cypriots may also have an issue with Downer
though this is more for internal consumption.
Further goodwill gestures are also being discussed. One
possibility is for President Anastasiades, Dervis Eroglu and Archbishop
Chrysostomos being allowed to visit Apostolos Andreas as a precursor to the
church being renovated. Other measures could be the opening of Turkish ports to
ships flying the Greek Cypriot flag, allowing Cyprus Airways planes to fly over
Turkey in exchange for the opening of the port of Famagusta and the opening of
certain chapters in Turkey’s negotiations with the EU.
As regards the Cyprus problem, the Greek Cypriot side is
focusing on involving Turkey in the negotiations without of course turning it
into a four-party conference. It
is with this in mind that Foreign Minister Kasoulides met recently with US
officials particularly with Eric Rubin. The US official said that he was
willing to get actively involved in order to solve the Cyprus problem. The US
doesn’t want to impose any particular solution but points to the huge window of
opportunity that exists for Cyprus within the context of the overall effort to
solve all the regional problems such as Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon as well
as the rapprochement between Turkey and Israel. The catalyst for all this is
the natural gas deposits found in the area which will either help achieve peace
in the region or lead to a catastrophic crisis for all. It is with this in mind
that John Kerry will soon pay a visit to the region with contacts in Tel Aviv
and Ankara.
President Anastasiades will submit to the National Council
on 15 June the name of the person he wishes to appoint as negotiator for the Cyprus
problem, Politis newspaper said yesterday.
It says that forerunner for this position is EuroMP
Panayiotis Demetriou, a lawyer with a lot of experience in the EU and in
politics and who enjoys the trust of both the President and the Foreign
Minister.
Other names that have been heard include diplomats Andreas
Mavrogiannis, Nikos Emiliou and Tasos Tzionis, as well as legal brains Aleckos
Markides and Polis Polyviou.
Andreas Paraschos writing in Kathimerini says that all the
shenanigans before the Downer dinner have made every serious citizen in this
country worry even more.
He refers to the preparations for a new cycle of talks on
the Cyprus problem and says that the day will come when we will be begging for
a version of the Annan plan to say yes to but nobody will be there to give us
that opportunity.
He says that sundry voices from DIKO, DISY and AKEL may be
shouting now, but that’s because they know there is no place for them in the
new structure that will come about as a result of an agreed solution. This is
because these people are the old, corrupt, rotten establishment so it is
natural that they will react and shout since they have nothing to propose and
nothing to offer this country. These are the parasites that are drinking our
blood, who are eating our children’s food, who impinge on every opportunity to
prosper we have left.
These are our opponents now. We have nothing in common with
them, we must divorce from them. Or they should just leave us alone. We believe that within the two major
Greek Cypriot parties there are brains that can go for a quick and effective solution
to the Cyprus problem, which will completely change the economic climate. It
was all very well when we had the financial wherewithal to wait for the
developers to sell the bubbles they created to feed the party parasites and
continue to set their terms on politics and the economy. But what will happen
now when the new Bank of Cyprus fires more than three thousand employees and
their salaries will stop entering the system? The situation will be even uglier
in the autumn than it is today.
That is why the deadlines have now become suffocating for
us. For us foolish Greek Cypriots who could not see five meters beyond our
noses, as well as for our politicians, who, with a few exceptions, did not want
to see five centimeters beyond their pocket. That is why the once major slogans
of "no arbitration and no tight deadlines" have become shouts of
despair. Now we will be begging for tight deadlines so that maybe we can find
some bread to eat. It is with a solution, even if only through the reconstruction
of Varosha, that things will change radically in the economy.
The building industry will grow based on real needs and not
artificial arrangements. New horizons will open up for Cyprus in the tourist
industry because the Greece-Turkey-Cyprus triangle is considered one of the
most attractive in the world setting the foundation for lasting peace and
coexistence.
It is for this reason that there is need for robust and wise
leadership. So far Nikos Anastasiades’ antics do not inspire faith that they recognise
this need. Hopefully they will get serious, if they have any brains at all…
George Koumoullis writing in Politis on 1 June says that
throughout Ottoman rule of Cyprus and up until 1955, relations between Greek
and Turkish Cypriots were excellent. Things started to go wrong when we
embarked on a military struggle for Enosis, completely ignoring the
sensitivities, concerns and vision of the Turkish Cypriots, as if they had
nothing to do with Cyprus.
The truth must be stated. The EOKA struggle for enosis,
union with Greece, (and not for independence, as is mistakenly being heralded) is
what destroyed the traditional friendship between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.
Why on earth would any Turkish Cypriot living in 1955 ever
have agreed to be united with a country where dictatorship followed
dictatorship with dramatic repercussions for the average citizens? Where he
could have been arrested without trial and sent to concentration camps? When to
get a job in the civil service, even as a road sweeper, he would need a
‘suitable’ certificate of social allegiance? When he would be spied on from all
sides and the corner kiosk seller would inform the police if he bought a paper
that was not “nationalistic”? The bitter truth is that Cypriots in 1955 under
British rule enjoyed considerably greater freedom than the citizens of Greece,
who were deprived of their most basic freedoms. It is therefore an oxymoron to
call that struggle a struggle for ‘freedom’.
The conclusion is that in 1955 we pushed our Turkish Cypriot
compatriots into the arms of Turkey with disastrous consequences for us. When
Cyprus gained ‘independence’ in 1960 (in inverted commas, because in reality it
was neither independent, sovereign nor self-determined), we should have
cooperated with the Turkish Cypriots who admittedly were given more power than
logic demanded. But had we had a modicum of brains, we should have supported this
favourable treatment given to the Turkish Cypriots in order to heal the wounds
of the preceding five years and to make them feel that they were our
compatriots for the good of our country as a whole. This could have been the
beginning of their independence from Turkey. Instead we kept on talking about
enosis and the Turkish Cypriots felt the ground shake beneath their feet.
Case in point is that on 25 January 1961, just five months
after independence, a demonstration was held in Metaxas square (now renamed
Eleftherias sq) on the occasion of the referendum for enosis (with the
participation of members of the House of Representatives as well as Ministers, who
are normally sworn to uphold the Constitution which clearly excluded Enosis) in
order to proclaim their unwavering passion for Enosis! As if this wasn’t
enough, we were hatching plans to exterminate the Turkish Cypriots (eg the
Akritas plan).
Of course the Turkish Cypriots themselves made tragic
mistakes as they too began to arm themselves instead of denouncing the Greek
Cypriots internationally.
But it was the Greek Cypriots who were the first to
undermine Cyprus’ independence and not the Turkish Cypriots. The latter had no
reason to upset the status quo since they clearly came out best from the Zurich
agreements. So I don’t know why we talk of a Turkish Cypriot rebellion rather
than Greek Cypriot.
But even today, our position vis a vis the Turkish Cypriots
is childish, divisive and suicidal. For example, we celebrate the victory of
the President of the Cyprus Republic
with Greek flags! This is such a ridiculous, stupid and partitionist act that
only willingly blind people can’t see it. Surely Mr Anastasiades as President
of all Cypriots, disagrees with this phenomenon but cannot control the youth
who have been infected by the nationalist virus. These people destroy all hope
of reconciliation since the message that they are giving out is that we are
only interested in a Greek Republic of Cyprus. And even more strange is why we
do not proceed with choosing a national anthem for Cyprus. Having an anthem for
our state would in no way deny our ethnicity. A state anthem apart from
strengthening our statehood and getting rid of an anomaly (using another
country’s national anthem), would greatly facilitate reconciliation.
Today's stalemate is not the fault of the Americans or the
British but our own inability to regain the trust of the Turkish Cypriots which
was shattered to smithereens in 1955. Already the Turkish Cypriots are an
endangered species. If they do become extinct, we would have a Turkey, at the
end of Ledra Street, with an area 54 times bigger than ours, a population 100
times larger than ours, a GDP 58 times greater than ours and above all an army
which is massively greater than ours. Given this unequal balance of power, is
there any doubt that the next species due for extinction will be us?
No comments:
Post a Comment