By Charlie Charalambous
THE CYPRUS peace process is suffering from a lack of trust between the two sides, Britain’s special envoy Sir David Hannay said last night.
“The sad truth is that in Cyprus there is a lack of confidence in the good faith of the other side which undermines efforts to reach an agreement,” he told the Belgian Royal Institute for International Affairs in Brussels.
In his speech, Sir David said the Greek Cypriot side believed the major Turkish Cypriot objective was to realise a totally separate state. And the Turkish Cypriots are convinced the Greek Cypriots are hell-bent on majority rule in a new republic.
The British diplomat said that further UN-brokered peace talks would concentrate on detailed legal texts concerning the constitution of a bi- zonal, bi-communal federal Cyprus.
And he said he believed that any new Cyprus agreement would have to encompass territorial adjustments.
“In 1992 the UN made a proposal for something approximating to a 28-72 per cent split. Neither Cypriot party ever accepted this proposal, but it is possible to speculate that the final outcome will not be very far removed in either direction,” he said.
The arms build-up on the island was also a major stumbling block to any settlement, and made any outbreak of hostilities more likely, Sir David said: “Present arrangements are fundamentally inconsistent with a settlement.”
He said there was a good argument for having an international military presence during the early years after a settlement.
He also said that Britain viewed the island’s EU accession process as a “genuinely positive development”, dismissing claims that the country’s constitution prevented Cyprus from joining the European Union while Turkey was not a member.
“I must say that I have found no support for this contention,” he said.
Sir David did warn that Britain considered a divided Cyprus joining the EU a “second best solution”.
But he was upbeat about efforts to solve the Cyprus issue, saying that an opportunity now existed to heal what he called “one of Europe’s oldest and most painful wounds”.
