Cyprus Negotiations Register Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
The tensions between Nicosia, Ankara and the UN unexpectedly reignited on Wednesday, despite the conciliatory but contested remarks made on Tuesday by Special Adviser of the Secretary General on Cyprus, Espen Barth Eide. The last hours did indeed mark two steps toward pacification and one step back.
TWO STEPS FORWARD
Eide said that the situation changed over the last 12 months, paving the way to the “resumption of talks in a structured, results oriented and fast manner.” The Special Advisor said that Turkey’s NAVTEX will not be renewed, opening the doors to new negotiations that should start from where the negotiators left a year ago. He explained that there is not yet a clear date for the talks.
“I don’t have a date. The main reasons we don’t have a date is that we do not know the outcomes of the election in the north, but as soon as we know we will of course reach out to whoever is the Turkish Cypriot leader, and quickly agree on the date, but I’m thinking of something within weeks – not months - from now and also from the date when elections start over” he said as reported by a note released by Cypriot Government.
Cyprus’ President Nicos Anastasiades welcomed the developments.
“We are resolved, with good disposition, will and determination, to engage in a substantive dialogue so that we will be led, at the earliest possible, to a solution… We want a solution that will certainly have neither winners nor losers but which will create a state that is modern, functional and viable within the European Union, of which we are a member state” Anastasiades said in a separate statement.
ONE STEP BACK
Cyprus’ Government Spokesman Nikos Christodoulide said that some references made by Eide are unacceptable, referring to his interview on Tuesday in which he said that “some states do not consider that the seismic exploration in the Exclusive Economic Zone of a state as a violation of the UN Convention.”
Christodoulide expressed strong criticism over Eide’s comments.
“Such remarks and interpretations do not help in the effort to find a solution to the Cyprus problem, and Mr Eide, as the UN Secretary General’s Representative, is obliged to respect international legality, the UN resolutions and the UN conventions” reads a third document on the website of the Cypriot government.