Anastasiades calls for unity

President Nicos Anastasiades appealed to Greek Cypriot political forces for unity, the Cyprus Mail reports. “We need the strength of unity to overcome the problems that will be raised through the Turkish or Turkish Cypriot demands at the negotiating table,” he said.

“I want to assure you that we will engage in the struggle to see our homeland free again, we will engage in the struggle to see human rights restored, we will engage in the struggle for the basic freedoms that will safeguard all our citizens and make sure that all citizens will enjoy the same things the rest of the European citizens are enjoying,” he said.

“If the 28 (member-states) of the European Union, with 28 different nationalities or origins, manage to cooperate, to build together and to create prospects, I wonder why two communities that lived peacefully together for years cannot manage to do the same, with mutual respect for each other’s ethnic origin. Ethnic origin was not and must not be the problem. It is human rights that must bring us close together by safeguarding them.”

2. The view from the Turkish side

The Cyprus Mail reporting from the Turkish side yesterday said Turkish Cypriot leader, Dervis Eroglu has claimed that the return of Varosha was not on the agenda, and that Turkey as a guarantor power said it was a red line for the Turkish Cypriots.

“There is not yet any issue on our agenda such as handing over Maras (Varosha). When negotiations come to a stage of ‘give-and-take,’ we will surely discuss everything and we will discuss it with the people,” Eroglu said.

Turkish Cypriot foreign minister Ozdil Nami was quoted yesterday as telling  the European Union Socialist Group meeting in Brussels that he believed the  historic nature of the joint statement paved the way for rapid progress at the negotiating table by addressing some of the critical issues related to governance and power sharing in a federal Cyprus.

“Today on both sides of the island there is a sense of increased optimism due to this long awaited progress. There is also a sense of confidence that this time we will be able to resolve the issue,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Turkish ambassador to Athens Kerim Uras, in an interview with Anadolou news agency said the start of talks was the result of a long-term plan by Ankara. “The key to solving the Cyprus problem is natural resources and the key to the candidacy of Turkey to the EU is the solution of the Cyprus problem,” he said. Uras said that Greek Cypriots who lost their property in the north would be  compensated through profits from the exploitation of the island’s natural gas reserves.

3. Erdogan and Obama discuss Cyprus

US President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Tayip Erdogan discussed the Cyprus problem, among other issues, on Wednesday over the phone.

According to a press release issued by the White House, “the President thanked the Prime Minister for his constructive role in the effort on Cyprus to renew negotiations for a settlement”.

The two leaders also discussed a range of bilateral and regional issues, The Cyprus News Agency (CNA) reported last night that US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Eric Rubin is planning a visit to the island sometime in March.

A report from Washington said Rubin would be meeting with officials from both communities, picking up the baton from Victoria Nuland, the US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, who was here earlier this month.

The same sources told the CNA that for the time being there were no plans for a visit by US Secretary of State John Kerry.

4. Hundreds of Greek Cypriots swarm to Talat ignoring extremists

Former Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, was the main speaker at a meeting in Paphos on Wednesday on “The Benefits of a Reunited Cyprus” organised by a group called “Initiative for the Reunification of Cyprus”  at the Neapolis University.

Reports from people who attended the meeting and wrote about it on Facebook said that over 300 people attended, many more than could fit into the small auditorium, so that the organisers had to set up screens and broadcast the event in nearby halls.

Meanwhile, a group of about 15 people, assumed to be from the extremist organisation ELAM, gathered outside the building holding banners and shouting swearwords against the participants. However, no one paid any attention to them until in the end they just left before the meeting ended.

Throughout the meeting, the reports said, Mr Talat was calm, humble and careful in his responses giving a very good impression.

Likewise the auditorium was serious, calm and with a few exceptions, of a high calibre. A large number of Kyrenia refugees was also present including the Kyrenia mayor-in-exile, Glavcos Kariolou.

“What was most important was that so many people came from the whole gamut of Greek Cypriots in order to listen to a Turkish Cypriot politician,” said another post on Facebook. “They came determined, eager to listen to someone from the other side. It seemed they needed to hear something hopeful from the other side.”

“It seems they no longer view the Turkish Cypriots as Ankara’s puppets, as they used to, but as serious players in the Cyprus problem,” he said. “Even the toughest questions they posed Talat were at heart, defensive,” the writer concludes.

5. Top lawyers say we must give the process a chance

Lawyer Polys Polyviou was grilled on Radio Proto yesterday morning by a journalist from the 2004 ‘no camp’. When quizzed over whether he was concerned about the negotiations going forward based on the controversial joint declaration that has the naysayers in a twist, he held his ground, the Cyprus Mail reports.

“We should not just be concerned about what might happen, we should be just as concerned about what might not happen. If we continue to do nothing it will be a catastrophe,” he said.

Meanwhile another top lawyer, Costas Velaris, appeared on an afternoon chat show on CyBC during which he accused the politicians of the NO camp of not wanting a solution because keeping the Cyprus problem alive kept them in their job. He made a passionate plea to ordinary Cypriots to make their feelings felt at the ballot box, causing a large number to phone in to express their agreement.  

6. Nicholakis plays politics

Columnis Giorgos Kaskanis writing in Politis refers to the letter that DIKO leader Nicholas Papadopoulos wrote in reply to President Anastasiades on the joint statement and says that its tone and argumentation reminds him of a character in a children’s book on the various exploits of Nicholakis. Nicholakis does this, Nicholakis does that, Nicholakis plays politics.

For example, he says, Nicholakis was furious at the fact that the document in saying that the status quo was unacceptable did not spell out what it entailed i.e. the presence of Turkish troops, the violation of human rights, the settlers etc. However, the little boy had no problem when his father signed exactly the same things in the 8^th July Agreement.

Next although he was pleased to see that there were no timeframes, he was disappointed these were not specifically forbidden as the Turkish side might raise them.

He also liked that arbitration was excluded, but he was concerned that the statement was a form of arbitration brought about by the Americans. He evidently, confuses the arbitration his father agreed to (in the Annan plan) with mediation.

Even more surprising was his attention to grammar. The statement, he says, specifies that union, secession or partition “is prohibited”, whereas it should have been in the future tense “shall or will be prohibited” all of which takes us back to the 1960 Treaty of Guarantees. Except that he didn’t read the statement properly as the whole thing is in the future tense.

Nicholakis was also insensed because Anastasiades fooled him that the “the Federal constitution shall be the supreme law of the land” whereas, in his view it should have said that “the supreme law of the land shall be the federal constitution”.

Am I wrong to say he reminds me of a children’s book character?