Downer interview and Turkey's plan B

The talks at Greentree in New York this month between the two leaders and UN chief will either be a success or failure, said UN Special Adviser Alexander Downer on Wednesday, thereby excluding the middle ground assessment that has dominated previous tripartite meetings, the Cyprus Mail reports.

In an interview with the Cyprus News Agency (CNA), Downer said the goal is to get a “good result” on three pending issues: governance, property and citizenship.

Downer repeated the view that an agreement was possible with the necessary “political will”.

“If an outline agreement can be found on the remaining core issues then many of the other details can be sorted out later”, he said.

“There are basically three core issues that the leaders must resolve: first, the method of electing a rotating president and vice-president; second, a way of settling the granting of citizenship, and third, the property issue which cannot be solved until there is agreement on territory,” said Downer.

The UN diplomat said the peace process could be successful but if it transpires that the divergences are too big to narrow the gap, then there is little the UN can do about it.

Asked about the intentions of the leaders in the talks, the special adviser said it would be “unfair” to say that either one or the other did not want to reach an agreement. He suggested, however, that reaching an agreement required an understanding that you can’t get everything you ask for.

Downer described the Cyprus problem as “the most difficult issue” he’s had to contend with.

Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmet Davutoglu has said that the “bi-zonal bi-communal solution model” in Cyprus will be abandoned if the negotiations process comes to a deadlock because of the stance of the Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriot daily Haberdar reports. Addressing a meeting of Turkish Ambassadors held in Ankara, Davutoglu said that a solution model based on two independent states will be adopted by the Turkish side instead of a bi-zonal bi-communal solution. He argued that the negotiations, which will be launched in the future, will be based on two independent states. Moreover, under the headline: “Two separate states”, Turkish Cypriot daily Gunes cites information published by Turkish NTV television and ABhaber website, that Turkey’s Plan B is ready in case the Cyprus talks collapse. Both sources said that if no solution is reached by July when the Republic of Cyprus takes over the EU presidency, Ankara will change the basic parameters of the negotiations.

Turkish daily Hurriyet says that Turkey aims to hold a conference modelled after the Burgenstock talks by March to discuss the Cyprus issue, a Turkish diplomatic source said.“The January 22 to 24 meeting and the follow-up process should be perceived as a turning point”, Deputy Turkish Prime Minister Besir Atalay, who is responsible for Cyprus affairs, told a group of journalists. “If the January meeting of Cyprus leaders paved the way for a higher level meeting such as an international conference with the participation of guarantor states, then there could be relief in the talks”, Atalay said.

Asked if he was optimistic about the success of the process, Atalay said he wanted to be optimistic and still believed a surprise might emerge from Greentree.Asked what kind of surprise, he said a decision to take the direct talks process to a higher-level, an international meeting or conference, very much like the Burgenstock stage of the failed Annan Plan, namely a meeting with the participation of Turkey and Greece, and if it wants a third guarantor country, Britain as well, and with the EU and some other countries making contributions as observers.He added that such a conference would sort out the remaining differences of the sides, particularly on property, territory, refugees, and would put the last touches to the power-sharing scheme and, naturally, the guarantee system.Kibris also reports that asked what would happen in case of failure of the Cyprus talks, Atalay said: “We always have a plan B in our foreign policy regarding Cyprus.”

The Cyprus government has denounced Turkey and called on the international community to tell Turkey that its policy and stance on the Cyprus problem conflicts with the UN resolutions.

“Statements by Turkish officials about a Plan B and a solution on the basis of two separate states again reveal the real intentions of Turkey’s policy on the Cyprus problem which are not a solution and reunification of Cyprus, but partition”, Government Spokesman Stefanos Stefanou said.

“Our response to the Turkish policy is our commitment to the solution of a bizonal, bicommunal federation from which Turkey is trying to disengage, as well as the assumption of sustained initiatives in order not to allow Turkey to invest in the unproductive passage of time to consolidate the faits accomplis of the illegal invasion and occupation”.