Joint declaration revealed

Sigmalive publishes the text of the draft joint declaration. Four parts of the document are written in bold, presumably being the changes that the Greek Cypriot side wants introduced.

The first line in bold refers to the issue of a single sovereignty and legal personality and reads “and which emanates from Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots together”. The whole paragraph reads:

“The united Cyprus, as a member of the UN and the EU, shall have a single international legal personality and a single sovereignty, which is defined as the sovereignty which is enjoyed by all member States of the United Nations under the UN Charter and which emanates from Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots together. There will be a single united Cyprus citizenship, regulated by federal law. All citizens of the united Cyprus shall also be citizens of either the Greek-Cypriot constituent state or the Turkish Cypriot constituent state. This status shall be internal and shall complement, and not substitute in any way, the united Cyprus citizenship”.

The second line in bold is in a paragraph about the powers of the federal government. It says: “any dispute in respect thereof will be adjudicated finally by the Federal Supreme Court. Neither constituent state may purport to have sovereignty, and neither side may claim authority or jurisdiction over the other”.

The third line in bold says: “Union in whole or in part with any other country or any form of partition or secession is excluded”. It is contained in a paragraph on the nature of the federal state and its constituent states as follows:

“The united Cyprus federation shall result from the settlement following the settlement’s approval by separate simultaneous referenda. The federtion’s constitution shall prescribe that the united Cyprus’ federation shall be composed of two constituent states. The bi-zonal, bi-communal nature of the federation and the principles upon which the EU is founded will be safeguared and respected throughout the island. The federation’s authorities and on the constituent states. Union in whole or in part with any other country or any form of partition or secession is excluded”, it says.

The final paragraph in the document is all in bold and says that the sides will seek to create a positive atmosphere to ensure the talks succeed. They commit to avoiding blame games or other negative public comments on the negotiations. They also commit to efforts to implement confidence-building measures that will provide a dynamic impetus to the prospect for a united Cyprus.

In the declaration the two leaders agree that the status quo is unacceptable and its prolongation will have negative consequences for both Greek and Turkish Cypriots and express their determination to resume structured negotiations in a result-oriented manner.

Moreover it says that all unresolved core issues will be on the table and will be discussed interdependently. It says the leaders will aim to reach a settlement as soon as possible, and hold separate simultaneous referenda thereafter.

The settlement will be based on a bi-communal, bi-zonal federation with political equality, as set out in the relevant Security Council Resultions and the High Level Agreements.

Kypros Chrysostomides analyses the document

Sigmalive on its webpage also carries an interview with former government spokesman lawyer Kypros Chrysostomides in which he analyses the document.

He says the only evident danger is the tendency of the Turkish side to have a separate identity and to maintain the possibility in the future to break away and establish separate sovereignty. He says it seems that this problem has been overcome except perhaps for the question on separate nationality, something which the Turkish side is insisting on.

“I believe if the other side is well-meaning, there is no reason for the Turkish side to reject it’, he added.

He says we have entered into a debate on a joint declaration and this has trapped us. He said a plan B is also being discussed in the event this declaration fails, but it would entail a much more complicated document.

He said there would have to be a dialogue to solve all the pending issues of the Cyprus problem because without dialogue the problem cannot be solved.

“Both sides have to realise certain things; the Greek Cypriot side that we have to abandon the right of exclusively representing the state, and the Turkish Cypriot side of having the right to establish a separate state, or secession or sovereignty”, he said.

He said if these two things can be agreed as the basis for a solution, then we can proceed well. If not, then the negotiations will have serious difficulties.

Concluding he said that if agreement is finally reached on a joint declaration, then this should be considered the basis for negotiation and our side should be satisfied.