Talks start today

The Cyprus talks resume today but unlike previous rounds of talks where the leaders met amid a great fanfare followed by endless negotiations that slowly fizzled out, this time the big players have been working behind the scenes to try and ensure progress, the Cyprus Mail says. 

The talks today will begin at 11.30am at the United Nations Protected Area Good Offices Mission on the grounds of the old Nicosia airport.

Eroglu being sidelined; there just for show

 Much of the movement has come through Ankara’s contacts with US, UN, Greek and EU officials, which yesterday led the Turkish Cypriot press to speculate that their leader Dervis Eroglu was being sidelined.

This was bolstered by the Ankara-backed appointment of previous negotiator for the Turkish Cypriot side, Kudret Ozersay. Writing in the Turkish Cypriot daily Diyalog, Ozersay said that this time there are a lot of signs that it would be a serious process. All of the international players were engaged, he said. He explained that he doesn’t mean that foreigners will solve the Cyprus problem, because in the end the Turkish Cypriots and the Greek Cypriots will agree to live in this new partnership.

Moreover, Turkish Cypriot columnists commenting on Ozersay’s appointment, say that Eroglu is no longer part of the process and was there ‘only for show’. The real negotiations were going on between Anastasiades and Davutoglu, which is exactly what the Greek Cypriot side wanted. 

One columnist writing in Turkish Cypriot daily Realist newspaper says that the appointment was made because Turkey realised that with the Eroglu–Ertug duo it would not possible to reach a solution. He reveals, moreover, that Ertug had submitted his resignation from the post of the negotiator two months ago over the issue of sovereignty, though this was not accepted. Ertug, the columnist says, was always opposed to the issue of single sovereignty and he never gave in.

Davutoglu: Cyprus talks may be last chance for solution

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu Davutoglu said yesterday that the new round of talks “cannot and will not last forever”, Turkish daily Hurriyet reports.

He also said that if the Greek Cypriot side rejected the new solution in a referendum as they did with the Annan plan in 2004, each side would go their separate ways.

“The talks should not be open-ended and cannot be dragged into a deadlock if one side negatively responds to the talks. Deadlock should not be an alternative,” said Davutoglu. “If the Greek side again says no to the talks, this time a referendum would not remain inconclusive.”

“I am pleased with the joint statement. I find it satisfactory. It is a communique that is also in the interests of the Turkish Cypriot side,” he added.

Davutoglu put the agreement on the text down to efforts by the international community including the UK, the EU, Greece and the US. He said he had spoken to his Greek counterpart Evangelos Venizelos by phone over the weekend.

“We are hopeful that reconciliation between Turkish and Greek Cypriots will have a positive effect on Turkey-Greece relations and we’ll be able to turn the Eastern Mediterranean region into a zone of peace,” said Davutoglu.

According to the Cyprus Mail, the Turkish Foreign Minister also met the EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Catherine Ashton and Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule in Brussels yesterday where Cyprus was discussed.

“We… agreed how important a comprehensive settlement to the Cyprus issue is for all our interests. I expressed how much we appreciate Turkey’s support in the recent weeks to help re-launch talks between the two sides,” said Fule.

Davutoglu also spoke again with John Kerry by phone, again about Cyprus, and with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and Davutoglu’s British counterpart, William Hague.

Once the talks are underway, Davutoglu said that in order to build confidence, the representatives from the Turkish Cypriot side and the Greek Cypriot side would travel to “each other’s mainland country”. “I believe these visits will break psychological barriers,” said Davutoglu.

Turkish Cypriots in Brussels on harmonisation

Turkish Cypriot foreign minister, Ozdil Nami discussed the Cyprus problem at a meeting in Brussels with EU Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan Fule, Bayrak television reports. Also present at the meeting were the heads of all departments under the EU Enlargement Commission and the EU Commission President Barrosso’s Assistant.


Evaluating his meeting, Nami said that the positive news regarding the joint statement was welcomed in Brussels. “As the process to reach a settlement moves forward, we shall need to speed up the Turkish side’s harmonisation process with the EU acquis communitaire. There is already some work being carried out but we will need to intensify these efforts” he said.



Nami also explained that he had found the opportunity to discuss developments and problems experienced with the implementation of the Green Line Regulation and the Financial Assistance Regulation.

Hopes running high

The international community has high hopes that this time the Cyprus problem will be solved, Newzup.net reports, adding that the US, Russia, the UK, France and the EU have said that they will make statements after the meeting of the two leaders present the joint communique today.

Rumour has it, that there will be references to confidence-building measures, such as the opening of Famagusta and the opening of Turkish ports and airports to Cypriot ships and airplanes.

High ranking officials are expected to visit the island in the next few weeks in order to stress the importance of a solution to the problem.

Newzup quotes a report from Ankara as saying that these officials will include, EU Commission chairman Barroso, and Enlargement Commissioner, Fule.

However, the Greek Cypriot side does not believe that an agreement can be reached with Eroglu on the other side. They therefore believe that the talks will go on for 18 months so that a conclusion can be reached after Turkish Cypriot elections take place as well as elections in Turkey.

In any case, President Anastasiades is determined to push through and to keep an open mind throughout the procedure, Newzup says. He will be giving a press conference probably on Wednesday during which he will explain the joint communique in detail. The press conference is expected to be a lively affair as he will answer one by one the arguments from DIKO, EDEK and the small parties.

Naysayers running out of false hope

The Cyprus Mail’s editorial says that ever since announcing that the declaration had been agreed, Anastasiades has had to contend with the hysterical criticism of the anti-settlement parties, including his government partner DIKO which has been publicly urging him to abandon the agreement. The objective of the hardliners is to create an anti-settlement climate by interpreting every paragraph of the declaration in the most negative way possible by resorting to gross misinformation, claiming it would lead to something worse than the Annan plan. The talks had not even begun, but the merchants of negativity already knew the outcome would be ‘catastrophic’.

The president has avoided a confrontational stance with his critics. He issued a statement calling for unity, urging everyone to work together for a settlement that would establish a modern European state for all the citizens of the island, and saying he will give a news conference to explain every point in the declaration and allow people to decide for themselves whether it is as terrible as his critics have been maintaining. It is the correct decision, the paper says, because the anti-settlement camp cannot be allowed to distort reality and misinform the public without being challenged.

Anastasiades must also call on his critics to abandon their abject negativity and inform the public what they propose as an alternative to a negotiated settlement. Do they want to wage war against Turkey or do they support partition? These are the only alternatives to a negotiated settlement open to us. Every other attempt to secure something better – UN resolutions, enlightenment campaigns, united defence dogma, assertive diplomacy, EU membership, blocking Turkey’s EU accession course, recourses to the European Court of Human Rights – has failed. The hardliners have run out of false hopes to give people.

There is now an opportunity, possibly the last one, for a settlement other than partition. The US government is keen to help because its plans for the region would be served by a settlement.

Turkey is also serious about a settlement, which is why Eroglu’s hardline negotiator has been replaced by the more positive Kudret Ozersay who would be directly answerable to Ankara. Even the EU will fully back the process and lend its support. This is an opportunity we must seize as there might not be another.

Anastasiades’ critics do not want him to seize this opportunity, in the hope there will not be another one and they would achieve their real objective that they are ashamed to admit – partition.

DIKO remains split after internal elections

The internal elections in DIKO ended on Sunday with former Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou staging a political comeback, after being elected as deputy chairman.

According to the Cyprus Mail, the elections showed that the party was split in two, as the “Papadopoulos camp” did not win any electoral battles when it came to party posts but dominated the election for members of the executive office.

Marcos Kyprianou is still the “wild card”. Before the Mari blast, Kyprianou was considered the front runner for the leadership of the party his father (former president Spyros Kyprianou) founded and even a strong candidate for the presidency.

The next step for DIKO is a decisive one, the paper says. Papadopoulos has threatened to dissolve the coalition if president Anastasiades signs off on the joint communiqué for the talks but he would need the full backing of his party to do so.