THE PRAISE lavished on President Christofias two years ago when he agreed to the resumption of peace talks appears to have vanished. All talk about the Cyprus problem, by UN and EU officials, nowadays, panders to the Turkish side, commending its positive attitude in the peace efforts and stressing the need for an end to the supposed isolation of the Turkish Cypriots.
These sentiments were also voiced by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in an interview he gave to Turkey’s Anadolu Agency this week. He said that comments by Turkey’s prime minister in February had added momentum to the negotiations and was encouraged by statements made by Dervis Eroglu about the resumption of the talks.
He said he knew the Turkish Cypriots were suffering as a result of the isolation imposed on them but hoped this would be ended by a settlement. Although no timeframe had been set for the conclusion of the talks, this did not mean that these would go on forever.
It could be argued that he showed sympathy to the Turkish side because he was talking to a journalist from the Turkish news agency ahead of his visit to Istanbul, but this would be a mistake. The fact is that UN Secretary-General does not see Turkey as being an obstacle to the talks – as President Christofias has been arguing for months in justifying the lack of progress; on the contrary, the PM had added momentum to the talks, opined Ban. Neither did he take Christofias’ letter, expressing reservations about Eroglu’s hard-line positions, immediately after the elections in the north, seriously. Furthermore he did not share the president’s oft-repeated opposition to timeframes.
These comments are all warnings to the Greek Cypriot side, which come on the back of EU plans to approve the direct trade regulation by the end of the year, the deadline everyone, apart from Christofias, is working to with regard to a settlement.
The government would do well to take note of Ban’s views, which, to a large extent, also reflect the positions of the EU. The pressure is now on Christofias who has managed to lose all the goodwill he enjoyed when the talks started, with his erratic behaviour, filibustering, refusal to commit to what had been agreed and occasional playing of the blame-game. His actions did not always support his words about his commitment to finding a settlement.
And this appears to have become the general view outside the Republic of Cyprus. In effect, Ban’s comments to Anadolu agency constituted a rejection, in diplomatic language, of the arguments repeatedly cited by Christofias to justify his ambivalent attitude to the talks. He should be concerned that nobody in the international community – not even the impartial UN Secretary-General – are taking these seriously.
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