Greece joins war of words

Greece urged Turkey on Friday to stop harassing Cyprus as it exploits offshore natural gas fields, thereby, according to the Cyprus Mail, wading into a dispute that has complicated peace efforts on the island.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, who visited the island briefly before going to Egypt together with President Anastasiades for a meeting with President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi tomorrow during which they will discuss energy cooperation.

“Provocations cannot be ignored, nor can they be rewarded,” Samaras said in Nicosia. “We hope Turkey will reconsider, to allow talks to resume.”

The Turkish research vessel, the Barbaros, has been sailing in waters close to exploration sites that Cyprus has already licensed to Italy’s ENI, France’s Total and U.S. Noble Energy, prompting Greek Cypriots to suspend peace talks with the Turkish Cypriots last month.

The island reported its first find in 2011, with a reservoir containing an estimated 5 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas. It borders on waters Cyprus shares with Israel, which has recorded some of the world’s biggest finds in the past decade. Turkey disputes Nicosia’s rights to search for gas.

Greek Cypriots say Turkish Cypriots can share potential benefits, but only when there is a peace deal.

“Hydrocarbons in Cyprus’s exclusive economic zone belong to the Republic of Cyprus, and, post-settlement, any revenue from exploitation will benefit all of Cyprus’s legal residents,” Anastasiades said after a meeting with Samaras.

The two men  talked about concerted action on all issues of mutual concern and highlighted the stabilising role both countries can play, in particular as EU member states.
 Anastasiades stressed that their common goal was to deescalate tension and not to provoke more.

“We would like to believe that both Turkey and our Turkish Cypriot compatriots will realize that such unnecessary crises do not secure anyone’s rights,” he said, adding that we are not the ones who caused the tension.

Addressing a special session of the House of Representatives later in the day, Samaras said Cyprus was becoming a valuable asset for the EU.

“In 1974, Cyprus was an open wound in our national subconscious. Today, the problem is still unsolved but Cyprus remains a source of strength and pride for Hellenism,” he said.

Eide says focus on the future

UN Special Adviser on Cyprus Espen Barth Eide said on Thursday he remained “realistically optimistic” that the two communities could set aside the standoff over the hydrocarbons row and resume peace talks.

Speaking to the media after a long meeting with President Nicos Anastasiades, the UN official said it was necessary for the leaders of the communities to reach an agreement.

Asked about the prospects for a deal allowing the resumption of reunification negotiations, Eide said he did not expect a deal today.

Responding to a question as to why his meeting with Anastasiades lasted two hours, Eide said only: “Good meetings always take time.”

Eide said both sides in Cyprus should focus on the future. Asked if he brought a formula to solve the impasse, he said: “I have a number of ideas which you can call a formula or package,” adding that “it is too early to reveal the details because I am still in discussions with both sides and nothing has been agreed so far, nor did I expect anything to be agreed.”

“But I want to insist on my main message, that both leaders agree that hydrocarbons will be part of the shared future of a united Cyprus. There is a striking agreement on the future and almost no agreement on the present,” he said, urging everyone to focus on the future.

Asked whether he believed that the issue of natural gas should be put on the negotiating table, he said that “if the table means the UN table, that is up to the sides.” He stressed that it was important for everyone in Cyprus to discuss what will happen in the future when there is a unified island.

For his part, government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides told reporters that Anastasiades and Eide discussed “a range of ideas” on how peace talks might resume.

“There has been no conclusion. We welcome Mr. Eide’s efforts,” Christodoulides said.

To the Greek Cypriot side, he added, the cessation of Turkish provocations was a precondition for returning to the negotiating table.

Earlier in the day, Eide met with Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu, who on Wednesday said that the withdrawal of a Turkish research vessel from Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone was “out of the question.”

Moreover, according to Turkish Cypriot daily Yeni Duzen, Eide said that he had come to Cyprus, after trips to Ankara and Athens, with concrete proposals and he hopes to develop these proposals together with the two sides.

On Wednesday, speaking in Athens, Eide had described the dispute between Turkey and Cyprus over offshore drilling as “really quite dangerous” and encouraged all parties to do their utmost to avoid any further escalation.

The United States has expressed concern about recent developments in the eastern Mediterranean.

Eide said after his meeting with Eroglu that the status quo on the island might not be as stable as in the past due to conditions in the region.

“It is a bad time for a non-solution,” he pointed out adding that the UN Secretary-General believes in him and that Ban Ki-moon himself might be involved in the process it this is needed.

Noting that his aim is to create conditions for the resumption of the negotiations, Eide reportedly said: “You know Eroglu is ready to start the negotiations, but Anastasiades is not. We have to discuss how we could create the conditions for the two sides to return to the table and the negotiations to be speeded up.”

Asked whether he had acquired the impression that the Turkish exploration vessels will be withdrawn from Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone before 30 December, Eide argued that Ankara is ready to support constructive ideas. Noting that the ships are only one element, he said that the only thing he can do is to express his impressions and that the sides can express their own views.

Eide recalled that the hydrocarbon resources could be both a blessing and a curse and added that for some countries their hydrocarbons have been turned into a curse.

In an exclusive interview with Yeni Duzen and Kanal Sim television, Eide said if the sides insist on their current positions, the problem will get bigger.

“The sides have different stances and I can understand them. It is not my duty to say who is right and who is wrong. However, if the sides insist on their positions, the existing problem will get bigger.”

He said that together with the solution both communities will obtain important benefits and added: “The decision is yours: You will choose either to get rich together or to get poor separately.”

The Norwegian diplomat pointed out that he is continuing his contacts and added that it is not yet evident whether the negotiating process will start again. He went on and called on the sides to stop acting by thinking that the other side will change its position.

He admitted that the hydrocarbons was the reason for the current crisis and that there is a deep disagreement on this issue.

“However, there is a point on which the sides seriously agree as regards the future. And this point is that the hydrocarbons is an important resource for the entire island and that after the solution it will be taken up within the scope of a power executed under the federal administration. Both the current leaders and the former leaders Talat and Christofias say and confirm that these resources belong to the island and will be taken up at a federal level. My approach is actually to focus on the future. Because we, in Norway also had similar efforts. The oil and natural gas issue is actually an issue concerning the future and it will take years for it to come to the point of being usable,” he said.

Eide said that it might take ten years for income to be obtained from the gas and added that it would be beneficial if issues regarding the future administration of the natural resources were considered from now.

Anastasiades’ pointless temper tantrum

Loucas Charalambous writing in the Cyprus Mail and Politis, says that the ‘withdrawal’ of President Anastasiades from the talks reminds him of the well-known saying from the Cypriot vernacular, that “the anger of the peasant is a loss to his pocket.”

It also reminded him of a simple-minded fellow he used to know in the 1970s called Takis, a very likeable chap who would walk the streets of Nicosia carrying his belongings in many bags and was generally known as “Takis who throws his things”.

Takis had a paranoid fear of the police and kids would taunt him that they would call the police to arrest him. At the uttering of the word ‘police’, Takis would fly into a rage, cursing and shouting “You rascals, if you annoy me again I will throw all my things.” At that they would wind him up again – just like the Turks have been doing to us with the seismic ship Barbaros – and a furious Takis, cursing and crying, would open one bag after the other and empty the contents onto road.

He says that Anastasiades, following in the footsteps of Christofias and Papadopoulos, does not want a settlement, any settlement  and has just found a pretext to stop the talks. Just like his predecessors, he wants to perpetuate the status quo because this ensures that he remains seated in the presidential chair.
 It was no accident that he wasted a whole year after his election, without making any move on the Cyprus problem. Nor was it a coincidence that the proposals he submitted to the other side contained the insane demand that the Greek Cypriot community would elect the Greek Cypriot president and Turkish Cypriot the vice president.

The man is trying to destroy all possibility of an agreement, presumably because only the continuation of the status quo would ensure he holds onto the presidency, at least until 2018. This is the only rational explanation for the foolish decision he took, amid much fanfare, with the rest of our political dwarves.

Dervis Eroglu responded by saying: “We want them to return to the talks. But if they do not want to return, we will not force them back.”

This is Anastasiades’ achievement – allowing Eroglu to mock us. Of course, in a few days, his self-delusion that the Americans and Europeans will force Turkey’s ship out of our EEZ will be exposed.

There are two possibilities now. First Turkey would find an excuse to justify an even bigger intervention in our EEZ. Ankara would tell anyone who made representations the following: “As we have been saying all along, the Greek Cypriots want everything for themselves. Anastasiades said that after a settlement the revenue from the natural gas would be shared by everyone in Cyprus. The Greek Cypriots do not want a settlement and have quit the peace process. But the drilling for gas continues which shows that they want it all for themselves.”

Second, foreign countries that have become fed up with our antics will turn round and tell us, “We have had enough and don’t care whether you quit the talks.”

If they do not say this, they will explain to Anastasiades that for as long as he boycotts the talks, Turkey has a pretext to step up the gas explorations in Cyprus’ EEZ and that his only option is to return to the talks.

In which case, Anastasiades will have to grudgingly swallow his pride and pick up his things, just like Takis used to do.