Speaking
to reporters after US State of Secretary John Kerry met with President Nicos
Anastasiades on his arrival in New York on Sunday in order to attend the UN
General Assembly, a senior US official who wished to remain anonymous, said
that with the appointment of the new special advisor on the UN
Secretary-General, Espen Barthe Eide, “we are now beginning to see the start of
real talks.”
“The
Secretary made clear how strongly the United States supports the work that is
going on between the sides and with the facilitation of Espen Barth Eide, the
Secretary made clear that he intends to be personally engaged and to help push
the process forward as he can,” the official said. “He made clear that the
subject of Cyprus and getting – and injecting new energy into the talks also
came up on his recent trip to Ankara, and that we will remain very much
engaged, including this week when there will be a number of other meetings both
with the parties and with Espen Barth Eide.”
To
a question if Kerry is planning to visit Cyprus, the state department official
said the secretary was prepared to do that if there was a moment in the talks
when he could help push things forward.
“We
haven’t made a concrete plan yet,” he said.
The
official said Eide was going to accelerate his effort to keep talks going
between the sides through October, and then “we will see whether a moment comes
when he and the sides think a visit by the secretary might be helpful”.
“I
think we are cautiously optimistic that these first couple of rounds since the
new UN negotiator was appointed are beginning to show promise, that the sides
are showing very serious purpose in the way that they are engaging, that we are
now beginning to see the start of real negotiations,” he added.
Anastasiades
said the focus of the meeting was the new phase of the talks as well as the
necessity of a more active involvement and exercising pressure on Turkey.
Replying
to a question on what the feeling was from Kerry’s talks in Ankara,
Anastasiades said the state secretary expressed his belief that Turkey “means
what it says.”
Anastasiades
will address the UN General Assembly on Friday, when he will also meet with US
Vice President Joe Biden.
UN developing ideas to bridge the gap
At
a meeting earlier this month after Eide arrived on the island, the leaders of
the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities Anastasiades and Eroglu decided to
accelerate the talks, holding meetings at least twice a month, and to move to
the next phase of the talks. They reaffirmed their commitment to lead the
negotiations in an interdependent, results-oriented manner, through a win win
approach, with the aim to reach a settlement as soon as possible.
Eide said
after the meeting that the United Nations are developing ideas to help bridge
the gap between the positions of Greek and Turkish Cypriots, as talks between
the two sides moved onto the next phase.
He said
that he will share those when “the time is ripe” and reiterated that the
settlement will be the result of an agreement between the two leaders and the
people of Cyprus and that he is “here to help them to get there.”
Right
now, he said, “I am working with the leaders and with respect for the leaders I
will not go any further into that.” He did acknowledge however, that “there are
a number of interesting ideas being developed”, the Cyprus Mail reported.
Eide
said “the reference in the document is win-win and the reason that the language
win-win is used now is that I feel that there is an agreement now that there is
more collective gain than collective loss.”
Obviously,
he added, “negotiations are about exchanging views and reaching a mutual
agreement at the end.”
The UN official said the phase that just finished
allowed the two sides to table their positions, which “are now well-known to the
parties themselves and to the other party.”
“The
structured negotiations for which we have already talked about in the joint
declaration of February 11 are really beginning now,” he said. “The preparatory
phase is done and it is important for me to really underline the leaders agreed
that this phase is now over and we are into something else which is a new phase
of structured negotiations. Now actually we will put all the difficult
questions on the table in a negotiating format.”
Eide
also said that the UN will try to come up with ideas that can actually bridge
those gaps based on the positions that were submitted.
“There
are clear differences of opinion on some issues, but I want to convey as
strongly as I can that I feel that we have two leaders who want to solve them
and that they really think that solving them is better than the continuing
status quo and there is a repetition today that the status quo as we know it
today is unacceptable.”
For
example, merging two separate economies into one would be to everyone’s
benefit, he said – a win-win.
Eide said
confidence building measures had not been discussed on Wednesday, as leaders
focused on the big issues.
Ban Ki-moon ready to become personally involved
UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is ready to become personally involved in Cyprus
negotiations if progress is achieved with his Special Adviser Espen Barth Eide,
President Nicos Anastasiades said, the Cyprus Mail reports.
Anastasiades
met Ban Ki-moon on Monday in New York and discussed progress made in the
negotiations following the adoption of the Joint Declaration by the Greek
Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders on February 11.
Anastasiades
said afterwards he was pleased with the meeting,
“not only because we had the
opportunity to reiterate our positions and our readiness and determination to
work for a solution of the Cyprus problem the soonest possible, but also
because we had the opportunity to hear from the Secretary-General about his
determination and readiness to contribute and assist, initially through his new
Special Adviser and later, if there is actual progress, through personal
involvement.”
“We have
outlined the difficulties that have been observed so far, and also the need for
those involved to work, not just in words but through specific actions. And
when I say those involved I mean that a clear reference was made not just to
our Turkish Cypriot compatriots but also to Turkey,” he added.
Cyprus could be reunified immediately, says Davutoglu
Turkish
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu visited the north of Cyprus on the eve of the
meeting between the two leaders in order to “help accelerate the process”, and
“to make a strong call for the solution of the Cyprus problem,” as he said.
Speaking
on the island, he blamed the Greek Cypriot side for the lack of a solution to
the island’s division and suggested that Cyprus could be reunified immediately.
“We
wanted Turkey, Greece, the TRNC and the Greek Cypriot administration to sit
around the same table and think how they can turn the eastern Mediterranean
into a region of peace,” the Turkish premier said. “But no matter how strong a
good will we displayed, unfortunately there was no equivalent response.”
Davutoglu
said now was the time for action, saying time was being wasted.
“The
National Council in the Greek Cypriot side makes decision-making difficult,” he
said and called on Anastasiades to join him in resolving the issue.
“Come
and let us make peace today, not tomorrow, this week, not the next, this year,
not next year,” he said.
Davutoglu
also invited his Greek counterpart Antonis Samaras to join him in visiting the
island’s two communities and have tea together.
He
also urged the US and Britain to contribute in resolving the matter.
“Let
us become an example for other crises,” he said.
But
if Anastasiades cannot do this, he should say so.
“Either
join us in finding a solution or let us lift the embargo and think of
alternatives. We will never leave the Turkish Cypriots alone. This is our
message,” the prime minister said.
In
respornse the Cyprus government condemned Davutoglu’s visit and questioned its
timing, as well as that of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan at the beginning of
the month.
If
Davutoglu and Turkey really desire a solution to the Cyprus problem they must
abandon their unacceptable positions – including the recognition of the
breakaway state – once and for all, government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides
said, adding that the least Turkey could do if it really wanted a solution s to
respond to return Varosha. “Turkey must do a lot if it really desires a
solution,” he said.
US interest in Cyprus problem - an opportunity to be seized or resisted?
An
editorial in the Cyprus Mail commenting on the meeting says it is not often a
Cypriot president is granted an audience with the US Secretary of State. Like
Vice-President Joe Biden’s visit to the island earlier in the year, this was
another practical illustration of the increased US interest in Cyprus, which
American officials have been repeatedly referring to as a ‘strategic partner’.
What the US has in mind and what form this strategic partnership would take,
nobody knows, but it is most probably related to the island’s position next to
one of the most unstable regions in the world.
The
paper adds that for the Americans, this strategic partnership cannot
materialise without a settlement of the Cyprus problem, which is why there has
been a rekindling of US interest in the peace talks. In the decade that
followed the referendum the US, understandably, showed complete indifference to
the peace process but since the start of this year, the attitude has changed.
It was active US involvement that broke the deadlock over the joint declaration
and paved the way for the start of talks.
The
US government means business. This interest in the Cyprus talks is not
theoretical or a passing fad but an indication of the importance the US places
in a settlement, which it considers an essential part for its broader strategic
plans for the region. The State Department official said Kerry had also
discussed Cyprus with the Turkish government during his visit to Ankara.
There
is little doubt that the Americans will be pushing for a result to the talks.
Whether we will see this as an opportunity that must be seized, or an attempt
to ‘close’ the Cyprus problem, that must be resisted, remains to be seen.
Coffeeshop
The Cyprus Mail’s satirical weekly column, Coffeeshop,
says it finds itself in the embarrassing position of having to confess that it
had been completely wrong in claiming Nik would be a strong and fearless leader
prepared to clash with the unions, parties and other interest groups in order
to move the country forward, maybe even help it mature.
Nik has turned out to be a marginal improvement on his
inept predecessor, but he is, after all, a product of the Kyproulla political
system that churns out petty-minded populists by the dozen.
There is a very good reason why all our presidents are
such disappointments. As soon as they are elected they start work on securing a
second term, the best illustration of which, is the way they handle the Cyprob.
Before being elected they claim they would work relentlessly for a solution,
but as soon as they sit their bum on the presidential chair their sense of
urgency automatically disappears. A solution is a threat to their presidency
and therefore has to be avoided at all costs.
The Ethnarch fought against it while Tof resorted to
delaying tactics; Nik is following the comrade’s tactics.
If Kyproulla is ever
to have a president that puts the interest of the country above his
re-election, the constitution must be amended to allow only one presidential
term per person.
And
if additional confirmation were needed that Nik was behaving like the Ethnarch,
he offered it on Tuesday when he threatened not to attend the dinner with
Eroglu that was being hosted by the new UN special rep Espen Barth Eide. He was
outraged because Ban Ki-moon had said that the two sides should enter the
give-and-take stage of the negotiations. The UN had to issue a correction, to
the effect that Ban did not know what he was talking about, for Nik to agree to
attend the dinner.
No comments:
Post a Comment