Christofias has been accused of getting cold feet as June 21 looms. There has been talk of “difficulties and problems” experienced by the working groups and technical committees, which, due to a news blackout, is difficult to clarify. The Sunday Mail spoke to insiders connected to the process on condition of anonymity, for obvious reasons.
The headlines were ominous this week. President Demetris Christofias appeared to be backing away from starting new negotiations with Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat.
“Was he getting cold feet?” they asked. And more importantly: “Why?”
“There is an element of cold feet on the part of Christofias…cold feet in response to disappointment that the process is not being as productive or fast moving as he would like,” said one insider, taking the perspective of the international community.
The working groups and technical committees started work on April 21, a month to the day after the agreement between the two leaders.
They will have been meeting for only a month on Tuesday and by June 21, when Christofias and Talat are due to review progress, it will be two months.
The Greek Cypriot side appears to have set themselves a three-month timetable for the groups, while the Turkish Cypriot side wants to move ahead with negotiations despite Christofias` view that not enough has been accomplished to resume fully-fledged talks.
Christofias and Talat have agreed to meet next Friday to try and sort out what has gone awry and to move things along. It is likely Christofias will get the extra time he’s asking for because no one wants to jeopardise the chance for new negotiations.
And the real issue? “The Greek Cypriots have fielded a high-powered team and given them quite a lot of room for manoeuvre,” according to the first source. He cited people like former Finance Minister Michalis Sarris and former President George Vassiliou.
“They [the Greek Cypriot leadership] said ‘go in there, clarify the issues and look at options so we can get going’. The Turkish Cypriots have fielded officials who have one if not both arms tied behind their backs. One arm tied by Talat and one arm tied by Ankara. So I think there is a lot less room for open exchange of views and therefore for convergence,” the insider added.
A number of people involved have told senior mediators that the Turkish Cypriots go into the meetings and read from their notes and if anyone says ‘well what about this?’ they take note, come back next time and say ‘here’s our response’. This slows the process down.
“It’s not conducive to a quick exchange of views even on non-contentious issues,” said a second insider, a Greek Cypriot. “Our people are experienced and knowledgeable and it is frustrating. The Turkish Cypriot side are putting out that there is progress and that we are downplaying it…and they are doing a good job of it.”
The second source said in any negotiations the easy subjects are chosen first. “So this is why they are claiming progress,” he said of the Turkish Cypriots, adding that ‘easy’ subjects were economy and EU topics, most of which come under the bloc’s acquis communautaire are and not open for negotiation.
“As we move it becomes more difficult. Even in the non-adversarial subjects no progress has been made,” the Greek Cypriot source said.
He said Christofias was now being blamed.
“The concept we developed was that we would explore alternatives. We ask their views and instead of hearing their ideas, they go back to their superiors and come back reading from a text,” said the source.
“It’s frustrating for us. We may have contributed to it to some extent by spinning about the good climate but people want to hear good stories and get upset when there is a real assessment. We don’t need a negotiations policy, we need a communications policy,” he added.
Not only do the Turkish Cypriot participants in the group have to run every idea past Talat, there is also the Ankara element.
According to the first source, due to their inexperience, the Turkish Cypriots are heavily dependent on the Turkish Foreign Ministry
“Their own teams do not have the depth of knowledge and the political experience to deal with the heavyweights they are confronting,” he said, adding that there was a need for the international community to persuade Ankara to give Talat a little bit more rope.
Both insiders agreed that the Turkish Cypriot side was trying to show more flexibility in recent days. However in some cases this consisted of cutting and pasting from the Annan plan rather than making their own suggestions.
“Talat should give instructions for his people to open up a bit more, and to not necessarily to have to come back for instructions on every single minor detail but to begin to explore without commitment,” said the first source. “Nothing is going to be agreed until everything is agreed. That’s the key to it. What they say does not need to be taken down and held in evidence against them. Talat is not demonstrating that he trusts his own officials.”
The other feeling among the international community is that perhaps Christofias` expectations are too high because of the amount of euphoria generated over the quick progress in meeting Talat after his election, the opening of the Ledra Street crossing and the relatively smooth establishment of the working groups.
The feeling is that progress is a subjective issue and hard to quantify.
“We are only three weeks into the process. It is supposed to be clarifying positions and we can’t expect convergence on the difficult issues,” said the first insider.
“The UN up to now, seemed to be relatively satisfied in that it was as good as could be expected this far into the process.”
A third source close to the process said Christofias should not expect much progress on the thorny issues at the level of groups and committees. The issues of property, security, territory and governance were the same as they always were, and if he expected any progress on these issues at a lower level, then it was misplaced, according to the third source.
What was more important was the tremendous change of attitude “particularly from the Greek Cypriot side”, which he said was “dragging the other side along with it”.
“The idea is to put the issues on the table, see where there is and isn’t convergence. Then when the talks start you focus on what is causing the problems,” the source said. “You can call them difficulties but they are to be expected. The UN is not disheartened. Problems should be expected. You’re not going to get a settlement in a few weeks.”
